A 

A 

0 
0 
0 
5 


0 

:>    1 

5 

^^^=  55    ] 

id    1 

4 

■'    JQ          1 

4 

—^^^■^  -r,      1 

7 

11 

n 

■                   1^     1 

3 

I 


X  i~r/ 


This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below 


AUG  1     1^24 

iyj  AY  2  2  1925 

JUL  6    ^ 

AU'i^RECD 

Ponn  L-9-5m-5,'24 

DUTY 


A    BOOK    FOR    SCHOOLS 


BY 


JULIUS   H.    SEELYE 

D.D.,  LL.D.,  Late  President  of  Amherst  College 


BOSTON,  U.S.A. 

GINN   &  COMPANY,   PUBLISHERS 

1891 


Copyright,  1891, 
By  JULIUS    H.  SEELYE. 


All  Rights  Reserved. 


Typography  by  J.  S.  Cushing  &  Co.,  Boston,  U.S.A. 
Presswork  by  Ginn  &  Co.,  Boston,  U.S.A. 


I4bl 
"345 


PREFACE. 


TN  this  little  book  I  have  attempted  to  give  to  the 
cardinal  principles  and  the  chief  facts  of  morals  a 
treatment  which  should  be  thorough  and  at  the  same 
time  apprehensible  to  the  mind  of  a  child.  I  have  tried 
to  be  simple  without  being  superficial,  —  not  an  easy 
undertaking,  I  am  aware,  as  I  am  also  conscious  how 
far  the  result  here  reached  falls  below  the  standard 
which  the  perfect  book  requires. 

In  some  points,  as  perhaps  those  relating  to  freedom 
and  to  property,  where  serious  errors  are  very  easy,  I 
have  preferred  to  state  the  principles  which  I  believe 
the  child  will  approve  in  his  mature  thought,  even  if  he 
does  not  fully  apprehend  them  now,  rather  than  to  leave 
the  matter  clear  but  incomplete.  Knowing  as  I  do  that 
there  can  be  no  abiding  basis  of  morality  altogether  sep- 
arate from  religion,  I  have  not  sought  to  make  a  book 
which  one  who  calls  himself  an  atheist  would  like.     But 

3 


4  PREFACE. 

I  believe  there  is  nothing  here  from  which  any  theist, 
of  whatever  name,  will  dissent. 

Some  friends  who  have  kindly  listened  to  these 
pages  before  their  publication  have  suggested  that  a 
larger  expansion  of  certain  parts  of  the  book  would  be 
wise,  but  this  it  seems  to  me  should  be  done  rather  by 
the  teacher  than  by  the  writer.  I  have  kept  in  mind 
constantly  the  quality  of  a  text-book  for  schools,  and,  in 
my  judgment,  that  is  the  best  text-book  which  being  also 
clear  and  comprehensive  is  the  most  compact.  I  have 
scrupulously  striven  to  keep  out  everything  redundant, 
having  pity  for  the  child's  memory  laden  with  useless 
verbiage.  A  good  text-book  is  like  good  grain,  to  be 
planted  for  a  harvest,  rather  than  to  be  ground  for 
bread. 

I  was  surprised  and  almost  startled  in  beginning  this 
undertaking  not  to  be  able  to  find  anything  of  the  sort 
in  our  tongue.  We  have  many  and  admirable  text-books 
on  morals  for  use  in  colleges,  some  of  which  are  advan- 
tageously used  in  high  schools,  but  a  simple  and  syste- 
matic manual  on  this  theme,  suitable  for  an  early  grade 
of  schools,  I  have  not  found  in  English,  though  there 
are  some  excellent  books  of  the  kind  in  French,  as  they 
arc  not  wanting  also  in  German  ;    these  last,  however, 


PREFACE. 


being  mainly  in  the  form  of  catechisms  with  prominent 
reference  to  religious  instruction.  I  hope,  therefore, 
that  what  I  have  here  tried  to  do  may  not  be  alto- 
gether in  vain. 

Any  suggestions  which  teachers  who  may  use  these 
pages  may  make  for  their  improvement  will  be  welcomed. 

Amherst,  Massachusetts, 
May,  1 89 1. 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

PREFACE 3 

CONTENTS 7 

I.    DUTY " 

II.   DUTIES l6 

(I.)   Duties  to  God l6 

1 .  Praise ' " 

2.  Thanksgiving J  ° 

3.  Devotion '  ° 

4.  Prayer l9 

5.  Trust '9 

(II.)   Duties  to  Mankind 2° 

1 .  Duties  in  the  family 2° 

Duties  to  parents 2° 

Duties  to  brothers  and  sisters 21 

2.  Duties  to  one's  self 22 

(1)  Duties  to  the  Body 23 

A.  Life 23 

B.  Health 23 

C.  Exercise 24 

D.  Temperance 24 

7 


8  CONTENTS. 

'  PAGE 

(2)   Duties  to  the  Mind 3° 

A.  The  training  of  the  power  of  knowing 32 

a.  Knowledge  through  the  senses 32 

b.  Knowledge  through  the  judgment 33 

c .  Knowledge  through  wisdom 34 

B.  The  training  of  the  power  of  feeling 34 

a.  The  love  of  pleasure 35 

b.  The  love  of  admiration 37 

c .  The  love  of  property 38 

(a)  Covetousness 39 

(b)  Avarice 39 

(c )  Gambling 4° 

C.  The  training  of  the  power  of  willing 41 

a.  The  free  will 41 

b.  The  strong  will 41 

3.  Duties  to  Others 44 

(1)  Justice 45 

A.  Courtesy 45 

B.  Life 46 

C.  Freedom 47 

a.  Of  person 49 

b.  Of  thought 5° 

c .  Of  conscience 5 ' 

d.  Of  conduct 52 

D.  Property 52 

a.  Stealing 54 

b.  Defrauding 55 


CONTENTS.  .     9 


PAGE 


E.  Reputation 55 

Slander 55 

Libel 55 

F.  Truthfulness 56 

G.  Trustworthiness 57 

H.  Example 59 

(2)  Kindness 60 

A.  Relief  of  poverty 61 

B.  Readiness  to  receive  help 63 

C.  Readiness  to  seek  the  good  of  others 63 

D.  Kindness  to  animals 64 

4.  Duties  to  Government 65 

( 1 )  Obedience 66 

(2)  Service 66 

(3)  Taxation 67 

III.  CULTURE  OF  THE  MORAL  LIFE 68 


DUTY. 


I.    DUTY. 

'  I  ^HERE  is  nothing  so  important  to  any  one  as  his 
duty.  Life  itself  is  of  less  concern  than  duty,  for 
life  is  a  failure  where  duty  fails. 

What  then  is  duty  ? 

Its  first  meaning  is  something  due.  Duty  is  a  debt. 
It  is  owed,  and  therefore  we  speak  of  duty  as  what 
ought  to  be  done. 

But  what  is  this  debt  ?  And  who  owes  it  ?  And  to 
whom  is  it  due  ? 

In  the  first  place,  the  debt  is  one  which  he  who  owes 
it  has  the  power  to  pay.  What  ought  to  be  done  can  be 
done.     Nothing  impossible  is  a  duty. 

But  on  the  other  hand  duty  claims  all  that  can  be 
done.  It  lays  its  law  on  all  our  powers.  Whether  we 
eat  or  drink,  or  whatsoever  we  do,  should  all  be  done  as 

ii 


12  DUTY. 

duty  bids.  And  not  only  the  deeds  which  others  see, 
but  the  secret  choice  and  purpose  known  alone  to 
him  who  has  it,  should  obey  duty.  Complete  control 
of  heart  and  life  is  the  debt  owed  in  duty. 

Who  owes  it? 

The  child  owes  it.  The  man  owes  it.  Every  person 
owes  it.  Not  the  animals  or  plants,  not  the  mountains, 
the  rivers,  the  ocean,  not  the  winds,  the  rain,  the  sun- 
shine, —  not  these,  but  every  human  being  owes  this  debt 
of  duty.  Whoever  he  may  be  or  wherever  he  may  be, 
duty  never  leaves  him.  He  may  know  very  little,  but 
if  he  knows  anything,  he  knows  something  which  he 
ought  to  do,  and  this  something  is  his  duty.  He  may 
have  very  little  power  of  choice,  but  if  he  can  choose 
anything,  he  can  choose  duty,  and  duty  claims  his  every 
choice. 

To  whom  is  this  debt  due  ? 

Every  debt  must  be  due  to  some  person,  and  all  duty 
is  due  to  God.  The  voice  of  duty  is  the  voice  of  God. 
When  we  say  that  duty  claims  the  heart  and  life  of  every 
one,  we  mean  only  that  this  is  God's  claim.  He  is  the 
true  Lord  of  all.  His  law  must  always  be  the  highest 
and  the  best.  For  He  is  our  Father.  All  that  we  have 
is  from  Him.     In  Him  we  live  and  move  and  have  our 


TO    WHOM    DUE.  1 3 

being.  He  claims  only  His  own  when  He  calls  for  all 
that  we  have  and  are. 

But  He  claims  this  for  our  sakes.  When  He  lays  His 
law  of  duty  upon  us,  it  is  for  our  good  always.  When 
we  do  our  duty,  it  is  not  He,  but  we  ourselves  who  are 
enriched  thereby.  The  sunshine  gains  nothing  by  our 
walking  in  it,  nor  the  air  by  our  breathing  it,  but  we  gain 
light  and  breath  by  using  these  as  they  are  fitted  for  our 
use.  And  God,  who  gives  us  the  sunshine  and  the  air, 
gives  them  for  our  profit  altogether,  and  the  use  He  bids 
us  make  of  any  of  His  gifts  is  the  only  way  in  which  the 
gift  can  be  a  good  to  us.  It  would  be  a  curse  instead  of 
a  blessing  if  we  should  use  it  in  the  wrong  way.  The 
wrong  way  is  the  way  wrung,  or  twisted  from  the  right 
way ;  and  the  right  way  is  the  straight  way  to  the  good 
which  God  would  have  us  take.  The  right  way  is  always 
the  best  way,  for  it  is  always  the  sure  and  shortest  way 
to  the  highest  good.     We  always  lose  by  leaving  it. 

The  wrong  way  is  wrong  because  it  is  turned  away 
from  the  right,  and  because  thus  turned  it  always  leads 
to  ill.  The  right  and  wrong  are  altogether  different 
ways,  and  they  never  can  agree.  The  right  always  leads 
to  a  blessing,  and  the  wrong  always  to  a  curse. 

When  God,  who  is  our  Father,  made  our  way  of  duty 


14  DUTY. 

always  to  be  the  right  way,  He  made  it  thus  our  highest 
privilege  to  do  our  duty. 

The  laws  of  duty  are  like  the  laws  of  health.  They 
give  both  strength  and  liberty.  It  is  sickness,  and  not 
health,  from  which  comes  our  bondage,  and  it  is  the  right, 
and  not  the  wrong,  which  makes  us  free. 

If  we  were  wise  and  acted  well,  we  should  turn  to  duty 
as  the  plant  turns  its  leaves  to  the  sunlight,  and  we 
should  welcome  duty  as  gladly  as  the  watcher  for  the 
morning  welcomes  the  day. 

How  is  duty  known  ? 

Every  person  knows  some  duty.  He  knows  it  in  his 
own  heart.  He  may  not  be  able  to  tell  why  it  is,  but  he 
knows  that  he  ought  to  do  right,  and  he  is  just  as  cer- 
tain of  this  as  he  can  be  of  anything.  He  hears  a  voice 
in  his  own  soul,  bidding  him  do  what  is  right  ;  he  has  an 
inner  light  in  which  he  sees  a  law  laid  upon  him  and 
binding  him  to  duty.  This  hearing  ear,  this  seeing  eye, 
which  every  person  has  in  his  inner  soul,  we  call  his 
conscience.  His  conscience  is  his  first  teacher  in  the 
knowledge  of  duty.  If  he  should  obey  his  conscience 
first  and  always,  he  would  always  know  his  duty. 

But  every  person  does  not  always  follow  his  conscience. 
Duty,  though  always  good,  is  sometimes  hard,  and  is  not 


KNOWLEDGE    OFLDJ^T^NGELES 


CAL 

always  done.  It  seems  often  easier  to  do  wrong  than 
right,  and  thus  the  wrong  is  chosen.  When  this  takes 
place,  it  dulls  the  voice  and  dims  the  light  of  duty  in 
the  soul.  Conscience  warns  us  before  and  reproaches 
us  after  the  wrong  deed,  but  when  we  keep  doing  wrong, 
these  warnings  and  reproaches  keep  growing  feebler 
until  they  sometimes  almost  cease,  and  both  the  light  of 
duty  and  the  gladness  of  life  go  out  together. 

To  get  back  the  knowledge  we  have  lost,  we  must  take 
up  the  duty  we  have  left.  The  quick  ear  and  clear  eye 
will  come  from  the  dutiful  heart.  The  pure  in  heart 
shall  see  God,  and  thus  shall  know  His  will. 

Not  only  does  every  duty  which  we  ourselves  do  make 
duty  clearer,  but  the  duties  also  which  others  do  help  us 
to  see  where  our  duty  lies  and  what  may  be  our  want  of 
duty. 

Shakespeare  had  this  in  mind  when  in  Othello1  he 
makes  Iago  say  :  — 

"  If  Cassio  do  remain, 
He  hath  a  daily  beauty  in  his  life 
That  makes  me  ugly." 

Duty  is  like  the  sun  which  shines  wherever  it  appears, 
and  wrong-doing  of  any  sort  is  the  darkness  which  the 
light  alone  can  reveal  and  drive  away. 

1  Act  V.  Sc.  I. 


l6  DUTY. 


II.    DUTIES. 

What  are  the  kinds  of  duty  ? 

All  duty  is  right  and  is  God's  will.  The  voice  of  duty 
is  neither  more  nor  less  than  the  voice  of  God's  loving 
care.  In  it  He  bids  us  do  what  would  do  us  only  good, 
and  keep  from  doing  what  would  do  us  only  harm.  But 
as  the  claim  of  duty  comes  only  from  God's  love,  so  it 
calls  only  for  our  love.  Both  the  giving  of  the  law  and 
the  keeping  of  it  also  are  from  love.  Thou  shalt  love 
the  Lord  thy  God  with  all  thy  heart,  and  with  all  thy 
soul,  and  with  all  thy  mind,  and  with  all  thy  strength,  and 
thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself.  Here  is  the 
whole  duty  of  man.  Love  to  God  and  love  to  man,  — 
these  are  the  two  great  kinds  of  duty  each  of  which  will 
also  have  its  own  kinds. 

(I.)   Duties  to  God. 

Love  to  God  holds  many  duties. 
i.    The  duty  of  praise  to  God. 

God  is  the  Maker  and  Ruler  of  all  things.  He  is  and 
was  and  is  to  come  the  Almighty.     He  is  the  All-wise 


DUTIES    TO    GOD.  \J 

and  All-holy  One.  Just  and  true  is  He  in  all  His  ways. 
This  we  know  not  simply  because  taught  it  in  the  Bible, 
for  great  nations  know  it  where  the  Bible  has  not  been 
known.  Who  therefore  shall  not  fear  and  praise  Him  ? 
It  is  right  that  we  should  praise  Him.  He  does  not 
need  this ;  He  does  not  need  anything,  seeing  that  He 
giveth  to  all  men  life  and  breath  and  all  things.  But  we 
need  to  give  Him  our  praise.  He  is  so  great  and  good 
that  we  become  greater  and  better  by  praising  Him. 
We  grow  in  strength  and  goodness  only  as  we  turn  to 
Him  in  praise,  as  the  plant  grows  in  vigor  and  beauty 
only  as  it  turns  in  all  its  motions  to  the  sunlight.  He 
calls  for  our  praise,  therefore,  as  in  every  duty,  not  for 
His  own  sake,  but  for  ours.  But  the  praise  for  which 
He  calls  we  must  remember  is  the  inner  praise  of  the 
heart.  It  is  the  dwelling  of  the  soul  upon  the  thought 
of  all  His  greatness  and  His  glory,  while  it  feels  how  far 
His  greatness  reaches  and  His  glory  shines  beyond  its 
thoughts.  Praise  ofttimes  may  be  spoken  in  words 
which  other  ears  can  hear,  or  shown  in  deeds  which 
other  eyes  can  see,  but  what  is  thus  heard  and  seen  has 
value  only  as  it  shows  the  inner  worship  of  the  soul. 

All  profaneness  and  blasphemy,  all  irreverence  towards 
God,  all  light  thoughts  or  ways  concerning  Him,  are 
therefore  clearly  wrong. 


1 8  DUTY. 

2.  The  duty  of  thanksgiving  to  God. 

We  praise  Him  for  His  great  glory  and  give  Him  our 
thanks  for  His  great  goodness  to  us.  God  is  good  and 
is  doing  us  good  all  the  while.  All  the  good  we  have  is 
from  Him.  We  live  upon  His  bounty  and  are  kept  only 
by  His  constant  care.  We  should  therefore  give  Him 
our  constant  thanks.  Thanksgiving  to  God  for  His 
kindness  makes  us  also  kind  and  keeps  us  tender  and 
true-hearted  before  Him.  There  is  no  joy  in  God's  gifts 
so  deep  as  that  which  comes  from  taking  them  with  a 
thankful  heart. 

3.  The  duty  of  yielding  every  tiling  we  have  to  God. 

It  is  right  that  we  should  do  this,  for  we  give  Him 
only  His  own  when  we  devote  to  Him  all  that  we  have 
and  are.  But  He  calls  for  this,  as  in  all  His  other  claims, 
not  because  He  needs  the  gift,  but  because  the  yielding 
is  in  itself  a  blessing. 

Daniel  Webster  was  once  asked  to  name  the  grandest 
thought  he  had  ever  had,  and  the  great  orator  and  states- 
man  at  once  replied  :  "  The  thought  of  man's  responsi- 
bility to  God."  If  it  might  seem  hard  for  us  to  follow 
out  the  greatness  of  this  thought  and  yield  up  everything 
to  God,  a  spirit  of  thankfulness  would  always  make  it 
easy.     The  claims  of  God  all  come  with  gladness  to  a 


DUTIES    TO    GOD.  19 

thankful  heart.     A  thankful  heart  overflows  with  devo- 
tion as  a  fountain  overflows  with  streams. 

4.  The  duty  of  prayer  to  God. 

Go  over  the  world,  and  among  all  peoples  there  will  be 
found  some  knowledge  of  God.  Also  wherever  He  is 
known  He  is  worshipped  in  some  way,  and  prayer  is 
made  to  Him.  It  is  our  duty  to  pray.  God's  greatness 
does  not  take  Him  away  from  us.  It  brings  Him  near. 
He  is  so  great  and  so  good  that  He  can  hear  and  heed 
our  prayer,  and  we  need  so  much  that  we  cannot  pray 
too  often.  Neither  can  we  ask  too  great  things  of  God. 
The  more  we  think  of  Him,  the  greater  does  He  seem  ; 
and  the  more  we  praise  Him  and  render  Him  our  thanks 
and  our  devotion,  does  our  knowledge  of  His  greatness 
grow,  and  of  His  willingness  to  hear  and  answer  prayer. 
But  when  we  ask  of  God  great  things  or  small,  we  should 
keep  in  mind  that  He  is  wiser  than  we,  and  our  true 
prayer  will  ever  be  that  we  may  get  only  the  good  which 
He  sees  it  wise  to  give.  The  true  prayer  asks  most  of 
all  that  God's  will  be  done. 

5.  The  duty  of  trust  in  God. 

God  will  always  do  right  and  is  always  wise  and  good. 
We  should  therefore  always  trust  Him.  While  we  take 
the  good  He  gives  us  with  a  thankful  heart,  we  should 


20  DUTY. 

trust  Him  also  in  what  seems  ill.  He  is  our  Father. 
He  sees  further  than  we  ;  and  if  He  does  not  always  give 
us  just  the  good  we  wish,  His  gifts  are  better  than  our 
wishes.  This  grows  clearer  to  us  as  we  grow  in  wisdom. 
Even  the  trials  which  God  sends  us  are  meant  to  help 
us.  They  ought  to  make  us  strong,  and  it  is  only  when 
we  have  let  ourselves  become  downhearted  that  we  lose 
the  blessings  they  are  sent  to  bring.  Their  fruit  is 
always  sweet  when  we  have  borne  them  bravely.  We 
should  therefore  always  keep  our  courage  and  our  trust. 
There  is  nothing  in  the  world  which  a  human  soul  need 
ever  fear  except  its  own  cowardice  or  want  of  faith. 

(II.)   Duties  to  Mankind. 

i.  Duties  in  the  family. 

The  human  life  begins  in  the  family.  With  the  family, 
therefore,  begin  our  duties  to  our  kind.  The  child  at 
first  can  do  nothing  for  himself.  Everything  he  needs 
must  come  from  some  one  else.  He  would  die  but  for 
the  help  he  has  from  others.  A  mother's  love,  a  father's 
care,  take  him  in  his  helplessness  and  tenderly  provide 
for  all  his  wants.  The  child's  first  duty,  therefore,  is  to 
have  a  thankful  heart.  It  may  take  him  long  to  learn 
how  great  the  pain  and  labor  he  has  cost,  but  as  he 


DUTIES    IN    THE    FAMILY.  21 

grows  in  knowledge  he  should  grow  in  thoughtfulness 
and  thankfulness  toward  those  to  whom  he  owes  so 
much.  * 

A  dutiful  child  will  trust  his  parents.  He  will  be 
frank  and  open-hearted  toward  them.  He  will  let  them 
teach  him.  He  will  obey  his  father  and  mother  and 
honor  them  in  all  things.  He  will  be  careful  of  their 
good  name.  If  they  are  weak,  he  still  will  honor  them 
because  they  are  his  parents,  and  will  let  no  one  reproach 
them.  He  will  seek  out  ways  to  please  them  and  will 
show  them  always  love  and  tenderness. 

This  should  last  as  long  as  life.  The  child  who  needs 
no  more  his  parents'  care  should  care  for  them.  In  their 
growing  years  he  should  grow  in  comfort  to  them.  He 
should  love  and  labor  for  them  as  they  have  done  for  him. 

The  children  of  the  family  owe  each  other  also 
constant  duties.  A  brother  means  a  bearer,  while  a 
sister  has  been  said  to  mean  a  source  of  gladness,  and 
brothers  and  sisters  should  be  bearers  of  each  other's 
burdens  and  fountains  of  each  other's  joy.  They  should 
be  kind  and  helpful  to  each  other  at  all  times  and  thus 
fulfil  the  law  of  love.  The  law  of  love  will  teach  them 
every  duty. 

The  law  of  love  is  the  law  of  life.     The  family  is  like 


22  DUTY. 

a  living  body  in  which,  if  one  member  suffer,  all  the 
members  suffer  with  it,  and  if  one  member  be  honored, 
all  the  members  rejoice  together.  It  is  like  a  living  tree, 
where  the  trunk  supports  the  branches,  and  the  branches 
give  their  strength  also  to  the  trunk,  while  both  trunk 
and  branches  feed  the  ripening  fruit  until  it  falls. 

2.  Duties  to  one  s  self. 

There  are  certain  duties  which  would  belong  to  any 
person  if  he  were  alone  in  all  the  world.  In  such  a  case 
there  would  still  be  a  right  way  and  wrong  ways  which 
he  could  take  and  which  his  own  conscience  would 
approve  or  condemn. 

What  are  these  duties  which  society  does  not  create, 
and  which  solitude  cannot  destroy  ? 

They  are  often  called  duties  to  one's  self,  and  this  is 
well  enough  if  we  keep  in  mind  that  all  duties  are  really 
to  God,  and  when  we  speak  of  duties  as  to  ourselves  or 
others,  we  do  so  only  as  we  speak  of  debts  to  an  agent 
or  steward  which  are  really  due  to  his  master  alone. 
We  are  only  stewards  of  God. 

Using  duties  to  ourselves  in  this  sense,  therefore,  we 
may  classify  them  as  duties  to  the  body  and  duties  to 
the  mind  or  soul. 


DUTIES    TO    ONE  S    SELF.  23 

(i)    Duties  to  the  Body. 

A.  The  duty  to  preserve  our  life. 

Our  life  is  lent  us,  and  is  ours  in  no  such  sense  that  we 
may  throw  it  away.  We  may  lose  it  through  no  fault  or 
choice  of  ours,  —  we  may  be  called  to  give  it  up  as  the 
martyr  who  faces  death  for  his  faith  without  flinching, 
or  as  the  soldier  who  dies  in  battle,  fighting  manfully  for 
a  just  cause,  — but  to  give  up  life  because  we  are  weary 
or  because  we  think  it  useless  is  always  cowardly,  and 
unless  one  does  it,  not  knowing  what  he  does,  is  always 
to  be  condemned.  A  suicide  is  a  soldier  who  deserts 
his  post  in  the  time  of  danger.  He  was  trusted  to  be 
faithful  and  has  betrayed  his  trust.  To  take  one's  own 
life  could  never  be  a  duty,  since  this  would  always  be  a 
desertion  of  every  duty. 

B.  The  duty  to  preserve  our  health. 

While  the  care  of  a  child's  health  belongs  at  first  to 
the  parents,  the  child  should  early  learn  to  care  for  this 
himself.  He  should  seek  and  heed  good  counsel  about 
this  as  about  all  other  things.  He  should  find  out  what 
would  help  or  harm  him  in  his  food  and  drink  and  all  his 
ways.  He  should  keep  his  body  clean.  He  should  keep 
from  every  hurtful  habit.     What  he  does  in  childhood 


24  DUTY. 

will  leave  its  trace  upon  his  health  for  good  or  ill  through 
all  his  life,  and  he  should  give  it  every  heed. 

We  may  be  called  upon,  sometimes,  to  give  up  health 
in  helping  others,  for  all  duties  to  ourselves  fade  like 
starlight  in  the  sunlight  when  duties  to  others  shine 
upon  us,  but  we  should  never  neglect  nor  waste  a  treasure 
so  precious  as  our  health. 

C.  The  duty  of  exercise. 

A  weak  body  may  grow  strong  by  exercise.  Any  part 
of  the  body  lacking  strength  may  get  the  strength  it 
needs  by  careful  use.  Of  course  this  cannot  always  be, 
and  certain  kinds  of  exercise  at  certain  times  may  be 
only  harmful,  but  some  sort  of  exercise  is  needful  if  we 
keep  the  strength  we  have  or  gain  the  strength  we  wish 
but  do  not  have.  We  ought  to  use  with  wisdom  all  our 
powers  of  body  and  guard  them  ever  against  both  indo- 
lence and  recklessness. 

Healthy  exercise  may  be  found  in  work  as  well  as 
play.    The  burden  of  labor  may  be  the  blessedness  of  life. 

D.  The  duty  of  temperance. 

The  duty  of  temperance  may  be  seen  in  many  ways. 
Our  health  requires  it.  Our  self-respect  requires  it. 
The  good  of  others  requires  it.  The  whole  world  re- 
quires it. 


DUTIES    TO    ONE  S    SELF.  2$ 

a.    Our  health  requires  us  to  be  temperate. 

Intemperance  in  food  brings  many  evils  to  our  health, 
which  ought  to  make  us  watchful  when  and  what  and 
how  much  we  eat.  But  intemperance  in  drink  works 
more  mischief  to  the  health  than  any  other  single  cause, 
and  perhaps  more  than  all  other  causes  combined. 
Strong  drink  has  been  aptly  called  the  foundation  of 
death.  Its  victims  far  outnumber  those  of  war  and 
pestilence  and  famine,  all  together.  It  does  not  always 
slay  at  once,  but  it  always  endangers  the  health. 
Whether  it  should  ever  be  used  in  sickness  is  a  ques- 
tion still  unsettled,  but  it  is  now  quite  probable  that 
it  cannot  be  taken  by  a  healthy  body  without  harm. 

The  harm  may  seem  quite  slight,  and  at  the  time  may 
hardly  show  itself  at  all.  A  little  drink  may  be  a  very 
little  thing,  but, 

"  It  is  the  little  rift  within  the  lute 
That  by  and  by  will  make  the  music  mute, 
And  ever  widening,  slowly  silence  all.11  x 

Careful  experiments  have  shown  that  even  the  slight- 
est dose  of  strong  drink  weakens  the  nerves,  makes 
them  slower  in  their  work,   and  lessens  the  sense  of 

1  Tennyson :  Idylls  of  the  King.     Vivien. 


26  DUTY. 

touch,  the  sense  of  weight,  and  the  sense  of  sight. 
Experiments  of  the  same  sort  show  the  same  sort  of 
results  upon  other  portions  of  the  body,  and  make  it 
probable  that  there  cannot  be  the  strongest  health  with- 
out the  strictest  abstinence  from  all  intoxicating  drink. 

b.    Our  self-respect  requires  us  to  be  temperate. 

No  one  can  respect  himself  who  lets  a  self-indulgent 
habit  rule  him.  The  self-respecting  man  has  self-con- 
trol. He  masters  his  indulgences.  When  he  lets  these 
master  him,  he  is  a  king  who  has  thrown  away  his  crown, 
who,  when  he  sees  what  he  has  done,  feels  his  folly  with 
the  deepest  shame.  He  cannot  recover  his  self-respect 
until  he  has  regained  his  self-control. 

Indulgence  in  strong  drink  soon  becomes  an  over- 
powering habit.  A  little  indulgence  is  a  little  thread 
which  a  child  can  easily  snap  asunder.  But  many  little 
threads  can  make  a  cord  which  all  the  might  of  the 
strong  man  cannot  break.  A  little  indulgence  in  strong 
drink,  which  any  one  might  at  the  first  have  controlled, 
can  soon  be  multiplied  into  a  habit  which  no  human 
power  can  overcome.  Men  have  often  striven  piteously 
against  this  habit,  only  to  find  it  as  resistless  as  it  is 
relentless.  Unnumbered  multitudes  have  lost  their 
self-control  and  have  gone  down  helpless  and  hopeless 


DUTIES    TO    ONE  S    SELF.  2J 

to  drunkards'  graves  because  of  a  little  indulgence 
which,  at  the  time,  seemed  both  small  and  harmless. 
He  who  would  keep  his  self-respect  and  self-control, 
unmastered  by  any  self-indulgence,  will  wisely  guard 
himself  against  the  slightest  peril  to  them.  A  wise 
man  will  resist  the  very  beginnings  of  danger. 

c.    The  good  of  others  requires  us  to  be  temperate. 

We  are  all  doing  —  or  at  least  we  ought  to  be  — 
some  sort  of  work  for  others,  and  we  cannot  do  this 
work  in  the  best  way  unless  we  are  temperate.  It  has 
been  proved  by  careful  experiment  that  a  healthy  per- 
son can  endure  more  hardship  and  perform  more  work 
without  strong  drink  than  with  it.  Strong  drink  saps 
the  energy  and  lessens  the  power  of  any  one.  When 
indulgence  in  it  has  become  a  habit,  the  workman  is  not 
only  weaker,  but  he  cannot  be  depended  upon  to  do  his 
work  with  faithfulness.  Both  his  body  and  his  will  have 
lost  in  strength.  An  intemperate  person  cannot  be  trusted 
in  any  employment.  He  has  thrown  away  his  own  good 
by  his  intemperance,  and  the  good  of  others  also. 

We  can  best  help  others  to  a  better  life  when  we  are 
temperate.  We  owe  it  to  others  that  we  should  live  a 
life  which  they  should  copy.  We  have  no  right  to  any 
self-indulgence  which    is   likely  to  lead   others  astray. 


28  DUTY. 

We  should  be  pure  and  temperate,  not  only  for  our  own 
sake,  but  that  others  may  be  pure  and  temperate  also. 

d.    The  whole  world  requires  that  we  be  temperate. 

Intemperance  darkens  the  face  of  the  whole  world. 
It  is  a  curse  whose  terrible  greatness  we  can  hardly 
state  in  terms  too  strong.  It  destroys  health  and  life. 
It  ruins  the  body  and  degrades  the  soul.  It  leads 
astray  the  powers  of  judgment.  It  inflames  the  pas- 
sions and  incites  to  vice  and  crime.  It  blinds  the  moral 
sense.  It  weakens  the  will.  It  impoverishes  the  family. 
It  desolates  the  home.  It  imperils  every  human  inter- 
est. It  throws  a  shadow  over  every  prospect  of  the  life 
that  now  is,  and  darkens  that  of  the  life  that  is  to  come. 
Its  curse  keeps  on  to  coming  generations.  Children's 
children  reap  the  bitter  harvest  of  a  drunken  parent's 
sin.     Well  might  the  wise  man  say  :  — 

"Who  hath  woe?  who  hath  sorrow?  who  hath  con- 
tentions? who  hath  babblings?  who  hath  wounds  with- 
out cause  ?  who  hath  redness  of  eyes  ? 

"  They  that  tarry  long  at  the  wine  ;  they  that  go  to 
seek  mixed  wine. 

"  Look  not  thou  upon  the  wine  when  it  is  red,  when 
it  giveth  his  color  in  the  cup,  when  it  moveth  itself 
aright. 


LXri, 

DUTIES  TO   one's   SEI&"NGELES,  -•-  r?$ 


"  At  the  last  it  biteth  like  a  serpent,  and  stingeth  like 
an  adder."  1 

Intemperance  also  shows  itself  in  other  ways  than 
in  the  use  of  food  and  drink.  The  use  of  opium  easily 
becomes  a  deadly  habit.  The  use  of  tobacco  often 
grows  to  an  overmastering  indulgence  to  which  the 
strong  man  yields  himself  a  slave.  It  is  one  of  the 
saddest  of  all  sights  to  see  a  man  who  has  given  up  his 
freedom.  All  the  pleasure  in  the  world  cannot  pay  for 
the  loss  one  has  who  finds  that  he  has  chosen  some 
indulgence  which  his  choice  cannot  control.  The  use 
of  tobacco  often  brings  just  this  loss.  It  leads  one  to 
sacrifice  his  freedom,  and  for  this  there  is  and  can  be 
no  sufficient  compensation. 

Moreover,  the  use  of  tobacco  always  brings  to  the 
young  a  loss  of  bodily  vigor,  and  is  often  a  great  and 
manifest  injury  to  the  health  of  older  persons.  It  also 
makes  men  singularly  thoughtless  of  the  comfort  of 
others.  There  are  few  habits  to  which  people  give 
themselves  —  in  the  civilized  world  —  which  seem  to 
brine  with  them  so  little  concern  for  the  comfort  of 
others  as  those  induced  by  indulgence  in  tobacco. 

1  Prov.  xxiii.  29-32. 


30  DUTY. 

(2)    Duties  to  the  Minu. 

The  great  duty  which  every  person  owes  to  his  mind 
is  to  bring  into  use  all  its  powers.  Only  thus  can  these 
become  strong  and  skilful. 

Every  person  might  have  power  enough  if  he  could 
but  use  it.  We  are  told  that  if  we  could  only  get  in  hand 
the  force  existing  in  a  cup  of  water  we  could  rend  a 
mountain  with  it.  And  it  is  just  as  true  that  if  the 
power  locked  up  in  any  human  mind  were  only  set  free 
and  set  at  work,  there  would  be  nothing  too  great  for  it 
to  do.  The  trouble  is  we  do  not  learn  to  use  our  powers, 
and  thus  they  lie  hid  or  run  to  waste. 

It  is  the  workers,  the  hard  workers,  who  succeed. 
"How  can  you  do  so  much  work?"  asked  a  man  one 
day  of  Sir  Isaac  Newton.  "  By  always  thinking  about 
it,"  was  the  reply. 

Every  one  therefore  owes  it  to  his  mind  to  train  its 
powers.  He  should  study  them.  He  should  learn  what 
they  are.  He  should  find  out  how  to  master  them,  and 
not  be  satisfied  until  he  can  make  them  do  his  bidding. 
It  would  be  a  new  world  if  every  one  were  fully  master 
of  himself,  and  this  might  be  and  ought  to  be. 

The  training  of  the  mind  helps  the  body  also.     The 


DUTIES    TO    ONES    SELF.  3 1 

body  gains  strength  and  skill  by  a  strong  and  skilful 
mind.  One  can  carry  his  mental  training,  just  as  he  can 
his  bodily  training,  to  excess,  and  make  it  harmful,  but 
within  wise  limits  the  body  gains  by  all  the  training  of 
the  mind.  Statistics  show  that  persons  with  well-trained 
minds  live  longer  and  have  better  health  than  those  who 
chiefly  try  to  train  their  bodies. 

"  So  every  spirit,  as  it  is  more  pure, 
And  hath  in  it  the  more  of  heavenly  light, 
So  it  the  fairer  body  doth  procure 
To  habit  in,  and  it  more  fairly  dight 
With  cheerful  grace  and  amiable  sight ; 
For  of  the  soul  the  body  form  doth  take ; 
For  soul  is  form  and  doth  the  body  make."  * 

One  soon  learns,  in  looking  at  his  mind,  that  it  does 
different  things.  It  knows,  it  feels,  it  wills.  Knowing, 
feeling,  and  willing  show  the  three  great  powers  of 
mind,  and  our  duty  has  to  do  with  each  of  these.  We 
should  shun  every  hindrance  and  seek  every  help  in 
training  them. 

"  For  he  that  is  not  wise  himself,  nor  can 
Hearken  to  wisdom,  is  a  useless  man."2 

'  Spenser :  Hymn  in  Honor  of  Beauty. 
2  Hesiod  :  Works  and  Days. 


32  DUTY. 

A.    The  training  of  our  pozver  of  knowing. 

There  are  three  kinds  or  ways  of  knowing  which 
belong  to  every  human  mind.  There  is  the  way  in 
which  we  know  what  we  see  and  hear  and  smell  and 
taste  and  touch,  and  this  we  call  the  way  of  knowledge 
through  the  senses.  Then  there  is  the  way  in  which 
we  know  by  thinking  over  all  that  the  senses  have  given 
us,  and  this  we  call  knowledge  through  the  thought  or 
judgment.  Then  there  is  another  way  of  knowledge, 
wider  and  higher,  which  gladdens  the  human  mind  by 
revealing  to  it  not  simply  that  which  is,  but  that  which 
ought  to  be.  And  this  knowledge  —  the  knowledge 
which  makes  us  truly  wise  —  may  be  fitly  called  the 
knowledge  of  wisdom.  How  then  shall  we  train  each 
of  these  powers  of  knowing  ? 

They  should  all  be  trained  to  find  the  truth  of  things. 
Truth  alone  has  power,  and  only  in  knowing  the  truth 
do  we  become  both  strong  and  free. 

a.  Our  senses  should  be  trained  to  observe  things  as 
they  are.  We  should  learn  to  note  carefully  what  takes 
place  in  the  world  around  us.  Unnumbered  lessons  of 
truth  and  wisdom  for  us  are  on  every  hand,  and  we  can 
learn  them  if  we  keep  an  open  eye.  We  may  be  sur- 
prised   to   find,   by  careful   watching,   how  much   more 


DUTIES    TO    ONE  S    SELF.  33 

there  is  than  we  had  ever  noticed  in  our  most  familiar 
things. 

Robert-Houdin,  the  French  conjurer,  taught  his 
child  to  walk  quickly  past  the  great  shops  in  Paris,  and 
at  the  same  time  to  observe  closely,  that  he  might  after- 
wards recall  what  was  displayed  in  their  windows,  and 
the  boy's  success  made  many  people  marvel.  But  such 
success  would  cease  to  be  a  wonder  to  any  one  who 
should  carefully  train  his  senses  to  observe  the  truth 
of  things  around  him.  We  cannot  easily  set  limits  to 
what  any  one  might  gain  if  he  should  carefully  keep 
watch  of  what  his  senses  might  show  him.  It  is  wrong 
to  be  idle  or  heedless  when  such  great  gains  may  be  so 
near. 

b.  In  caring  for  our  thoughts  we  should,  in  the  first 
place,  learn  to  study.  To  study  is  to  think  steadily  upon 
something,  and  this  we  should  do  until  we  get  the  power 
of  close  and  steady  thought.  We  should  put  our  heart 
in  our  work.  He  who  has  his  heart  in  his  learning, 
said  a  Greek  orator,1  will  soon  have  his  learning  in  his 
heart. 

To  gain  strength  of  thought  and  skill  in  thought,  we 
need  be  careful,  most  of  all,  that  all  our  thoughts  be 

1  Isocrates. 


34  DUTY. 

true.  We  should  accustom  ourselves  to  accuracy  in  all 
things.  We  should  be  watchful  lest  our  thoughts  be 
warped  by  our  wishes,  or  dwarfed  by  want  of  knowledge. 
We  should  be  constantly  learning  and  constantly  willing 
to  be  taught,  so  that  neither  our  ignorance  nor  our  self- 
will  should  blind  us  to  the  truth. 

c.  To  gain  the  light  of  highest  wisdom  we  should  set 
ourselves  where  the  light  shines.  We  should  familiarize 
ourselves  with  the  highest  things  in  beauty,  truth,  and 
goodness,  and  turn  away  from  what  is  ugly,  false,  and 
wrong.  It  is  the  good  which  makes  good.  It  is  the 
knowledge  of  what  is  best  which  inspires  us  to  attain 
what  is  best.  It  was  when  Correggio  first  saw  some  of 
the  greatest  pictures  in  the  world  that  he  cried  out  : 
"Thank  God,  I,  too,  can  be  a  painter."  And  so  ever 
the  works  as  well  as  the 

"  Lives  of  great  men  all  remind  us, 
We  can  make  our  lives  sublime.11 ! 

B.    The  training  of  our  power  of  feeling. 

We  should  be  watchful  of  our  feelings  as  well  as  of 
our  thoughts.  It  is  both  a  great  privilege  and  a  great 
peril  to  be  able  to  feel.     Nothing  is  better  for  a  person 

1  Longfellow  :   Psalm  of  Life. 


DUTIES    TO    ONES    SELF.  35 

than  strong  and  deep  feeling  when  led  by  wisdom,  and 
nothing  worse  than  the  same  feeling  when  left  to  folly. 
Out  of  the  heart  are  the  issues  of  life,  and  we  should 
keep  this  fountain  of  our  feelings,  therefore,  with  all 
diligence. 

There  are  three  kinds  of  feeling  to  which  every  one 
should  give  his  special  care.  These  are  those  belonging 
to  the  love  of  pleasure,  the  love  of  admiration,  and  the 
love  of  property. 

In  caring  for  these,  we  should  see  that  our  love  of 
pleasure  should  be  pure,  that  it  should  be  helpful,  and 
that  it  should  never  give  way  to  despondency  ;  that  our 
love  of  admiration  should  make  us  worthy  to  be  admired  ; 
and  that  our  love  of  property  should  be  kept  free  from 
covetousness,  from  avarice,  and  from  gambling. 

a.    The  love  of  pleasure. 

(a)  We  should  keep  our  pleasures  pure. 

Our  love  of  pleasure  should  never  cause  a  blush  or 
give  a  sense  of  shame.  It  should  always  be  a  stream 
of  gladness,  pure  and  clear.  Whatever  pleasure  is  im- 
pure leaves  a  stain  upon  the  soul,  which  by  and  by 
becomes  a  sting. 

If  we  would  keep  our  pleasures  pure,  we  should  keep 
our  thoughts  pure.     Our  feelings  are  fed  and  strength- 


36  DUTY. 

ened  by  our  thoughts,  and  we  should  shut  out  every 
thought  which  might  bring  in  a  wrong  desire.  The 
books  we  read,  the  talk  we  hear,  the  scenes  on  which 
our  fancy  dwells,  do  much  to  turn  and  tinge  the  current 
of  our  feelings,  and  we  should  watch  them  all. 

We  should  guard  against  the  early  impulse  to  impure 
pleasures.  Evil  wishes  are  foes  which  we  should  fight 
as  soon  as  they  appear.  If  we  resist  them,  they  will 
flee  ;  but  if  we  dally  with  them,  we  are  already  overcome. 

Of  course  the  first  impure  deed,  however  small  it 
might  seem,  will  be  shunned  by  every  one  who  would 
keep  his  pleasures  pure. 

{b)  We  should  keep  our  pleasures  helpful. 

All  our  pleasures  ought  to  do  us  good.  They  should 
refresh  us  like  the  sunlight  and  the  air.  In  every  pleas- 
ure we  should  find  renewal  of  our  strength.  It  should 
be  to  us  a  re-creation.  A  pleasure  which  harms  body 
or  mind  must  be  wrong. 

It  is  right  that  we  should  have  amusements.  Every- 
body needs  them,  but  all  amusements  are  not  therefore 
right ;  neither  are  any  right  at  every  time  and  place. 
Play  has  its  place  in  life  as  well  as  work,  and  we  should 
keep  it  in  its  place. 

The  joy  of   play  is  a  jewel  which  one  need  not  be 


DUTIES    TO    ONE  S    SELF.  37 

ashamed  to  wear,  but  one  does  not  wear  his  jewels  all 
the  while,  nor  is  everything  that  glitters  gold. 

(r)  Our  love  of  pleasure  should  keep  us  from  despond- 
ency. 

True  pleasure  is  true  health,  and  to  the  healthy  soul, 
if  weeping  may  endure  for  a  night,  joy  cometh  in  the 
morning.  The  healthy  soul  looks  for  the  light  when- 
ever it  feels  the  darkness.  It  does  not  let  itself  be  cast 
down  by  its  sorrows.  However  dark  the  night,  it  knows 
the  day  will  come.  We  should  keep  our  souls  in  health 
all  the  while.  They  should  be  like  the  sea,  whose  sur- 
face only  is  disturbed  by  storms. 

b.    TJie  love  of  admiration. 

This  is  not,  in  itself,  to  be  condemned.  We  may 
properly  desire  the  good  opinion  of  others.  All  human 
fellowship  would  cease  if  no  one  cared  what  others 
thought  about  him.  But  to  desire  the  admiration  which 
we  know  is  not  deserved  is  like  feeding  on  the  fabled 
fruit,  which  was  all  fair  outside  but  filled  with  ashes. 
To  wish  it  would  show  an  appetite  depraved,  and  to 
attempt  to  live  upon  it  would  do  away  with  life.  The 
only  honor  which  we  ought  to  wish  is  that  which  has 
been  won  first  of  all  from  our  own  hearts.  If  we 
are  worthy  of  our  own  approval,  we  shall  soon  or  late 


38  DUTY. 

have  also  that  of  others  ;  and  if  we  are  unworthy, 
their  approval  could  but  give  us  in  the  end  a  terrible 
disgust. 

We  should  therefore  guide  and  guard  our  love  of 
admiration.  We  should  guard  ourselves  against  desir- 
ing what  has  no  foundation.  We  should  seek  greatness 
rather  than  a  show  of  greatness,  and  honor  rather  than 
applause.  There  is  wondrous  wisdom  in  the  words  : 
"Whosoever  exalteth  himself  shall  be  abased,  and  he 
that  humbleth  himself  shall  be  exalted."  1  If  we  have 
true  worth,  we  need  not  be  disturbed  by  thinking  others 
do  not  know  it,  and  we  need  not  exert  ourselves  to  make 
it  known.  There  is  never  any  light  which  does  not 
shine,  and  true  gold  needs  no  gilding. 

c.    The  love  of  property. 

The  love  of  property  needs  even  more  watch  and  care 
than  does  the  love  of  pleasure  or  the  love  of  admiration, 
for  it  deadens  the  conscience  more  than  either  of  these. 
A  person  who  has  let  his  love  of  pleasure  or  his  love 
of  admiration  lead  him  far  astray  has  times  when  he 
clearly  sees,  and  is  bitterly  ashamed  of  his  folly  ;  but  he 
whom  the  love  of  property  controls  seems  to  have  well 
nigh  lost  the  sense  of  shame.  The  miser  does  not  know 
his  misery,  and  is  a  wretch  beyond  compare. 
1  Luke  xiv.  1 1. 


DUTIES    TO    ONE'S    SELF.  39 

To  keep  the  love  of  property  from  mastering  us,  we 
should  foster  the  grace  of  giving.  If  we  have  but  little, 
we  can  probably  find  something  we  can  give  to  those 
whose  need  is  more  than  ours.  The  love  of  property 
may  be  quite  as  strong,  and  may  as  much  need  to  be 
broken  in  the  man  of  little  means  as  in  the  man  of 
millions. 

For  keeping  watch  and  care  over  the  love  of  property, 
we  need  to  guard  especially  against  covetousness  and 
avarice  and  gambling. 

(a)  Covetousness. 

To  covet  anything  is  to  wish  for  it  earnestly.  For 
some  things  this  is  right.  We  cannot  wish  too  earnestly 
for  purity  and  goodness.  But  to  covet  what  belongs  to 
another  which  we  could  have  only  by  depriving  him  of 
his  possessions  is  a  selfish  wish  which  if  encouraged 
takes  away  all  freedom  from  our  feelings.  To  covet 
property  soon  makes  a  man  a  slave. 

(b)  Avarice. 

Covetousness  is  the  greed  to  get,  and  avarice  the 
greed  to  keep  what  we  have  got.  The  avaricious  man 
hoards  his  money ;  he  loves  it  for  its  own  sake,  and  will 
not  spend  it  for  his  farther  pleasure.  He  is  not  happy. 
He  seeks  for   happiness  from   his    hoardings,   but   his 


4o 


DUTY. 


increasing  gains  only  increase  his  misery.  No  beggar 
is  more  dependent,  and  no  slavery  more  ignoble. 

(c)   Gambling. 

To  gamble  is  to  risk  one's  possession  of  anything 
upon  chance.  The  gambler  is  willing  thus  to  risk  what 
he  has  in  the  hope  of  gaining  more.  But  in  doing  this 
he  gives  up  reason  and  takes  chance  instead  of  reason 
as  his  guide.  This  is,  in  the  exact  sense,  unreason- 
able, and  therefore  always  wrong.  Whether  the  amount 
risked  be  little  or  large,  no  one  can  let  it  turn  on  chance 
without  turning  himself  away  from  reason.  For  this 
his  reason,  if  it  be  not  altogether  dead,  will  make  him 
assuredly  ashamed. 

Gambling  weakens,  and  if  kept  up  destroys,  one's  sense 
of  honor.  It  is  dishonorable  to  get  gain  from  another 
which  he  does  not  freely  give,  and  for  which  he  gets  no 
fair  return.  This  dishonorable  act  the  successful  gam- 
bler always  does  ;  and  as  the  unsuccessful  gambler  is 
always  willing  to  do  the  same,  both  parties  are  guilty  of 
dishonor. 

Gambling  is  not  necessarily  dishonest,  for  both  par- 
tics  in  the  game  may  have  a  clear  agreement  to  abide 
the  issue  ;  but  it  is  always  degrading,  for  no  person  has 
the  right  to  enter  into  any  such  agreement.    It  is,  more- 


DUTIES    TO    ONE  S    SELF.  41 

over,  very  likely  to  be  dishonest,  for  the  gambler  can 
hardly  play  without  the  wish  that  he  may  get  that  for 
which  he  knows  there  is  no  fair  return. 

Betting,  for  any  amount  however  small,  is  the  same 
sort  of  wrong.  It  is  the  setting  aside  of  reason  which 
should  always  rule.  When  a  person  does  it,  he  blind- 
folds himself,  even  though  his  first  and  clearest  duty  is 
to  see. 

C.    The  training  of  our  power  of  willing. 

a.  Our  free  will  is  the  crown  of  all  our  powers,  and 
our  first  duty  to  it  is  to  maintain  its  freedom.  Freedom 
is  obedience  to  what  is  true  and  right,  and  to  keep  free, 
we  must  keep  the  right  rule. 

"  He  is  a  freeman  whom  the  truth  makes  free, 
And  all  are  slaves  beside.1'1 

He  who  committeth  sin  is  the  slave  of  sin,  and  no 
person  should  ever  consent  to  be  a  slave.  He  should 
guard  his  liberty  with  closest  watchfulness  against 
the  tyranny  of  custom,  the  tyranny  of  other  people's 
opinions,  and,  most  of  all,  the  tyranny  of  his  own 
desires.     A  free  will  is  free  from  wilfulness. 

b.  Every  person  also  has  a  duty  to  his  will  to  make  it 

1  Cowper  :  The  Task,  Book  V. 


42  DUTY. 

a  strong  will.  A  strong  will  is  a  free  will  full  of  energy. 
It  holds  fast  to  the  truth,  and  does  with  its  might  what 
it  finds  to  do.  It  has  the  valor  which  is  the  essence  of 
virtue.  It  is  the  will  of  a  hero  courageous  to  attack 
what  is  wrong,  and  brave  to  defend  what  is  right.  It 
never  fears  to  tell  the  truth  or  keep  its  word. 

A  strong  will  is  very  different  from  a  selfish  will  or  a 
stubborn  will.  A  selfish  will  is  always  blind,  and  a 
stubborn  will  is  always  narrow  ;  but  a  strong  will  sees 
clear  and  far,  and  therefore  neither  fears  nor  falters. 
Every  one  can  draw  from  the  fountain  of  his  freedom 
this  living  stream  of  energy  if  he  chooses,  and  every 
person  ought  to  choose  it  with  unfailing  purpose. 

A  strong  will  is  always  ready  for  its  duty.  It  needs 
no  urging.  Mr.  Lincoln's  first  call  for  troops  was  sent 
out  the  fifteenth  of  April,  1861,  and  on  the  nineteenth 
of  that  same  month  Grant  was  drilling  a  company  of 
volunteers  at  Galena. 

We  may  show  our  strong  will  in  the  life  of  every  day. 
Every  one  has  foes  to  fight,  and  may  be  a  hero.  Virtue 
is  only  another  word  for  bravery,  and  virtue  and  heroism 
are  the  same  word.  There  is  a  constant  call  on  every 
one  of  us  to  be  brave.  Our  love  of  ease  or  self-indul- 
gence is  ever  liable  to  set  itself  against  our  sense  of 


DUTIES    TO    ONE  S    SELF.  43 

right  and  duty,  and  unless  we  use  all  our  strength  of 
will  we  may  at  any  time  be  overcome.  We  should, 
therefore,  never  let  ourselves  be  taken  unawares.  We 
should  be  on  our  guard  against  what  might  seem  little 
dangers.  Our  hardest  foes  to  master  may  often  lurk  in 
some  little  self-indulgence.  Let  us  look  for  these  and  be 
ever  wary.  We  should  never  think  a  course  to  be  right 
simply  because  it  is  pleasant.  The  right  road  is  always 
pleasant  at  the  end,  but  is  often  a  thorny  path  at  the 
beginning.  He  who  would  be  a  hero  will  never  turn 
aside  from  hard  things  because  they  are  hard.  He  will 
never  shirk  an  irksome  duty  or  give  himself  to  play 
when  he  has  hard  work  to  do. 

The  strong  will  is  a  persevering  will.  It  holds  fast 
what  is  good.  It  has  set  itself  on  doing  right,  and  does 
not  give  up  to  hardships,  or  turn  aside  from  any  danger. 
He  who  is  resolutely  willing  to  do  his  duty,  as  every 
one  ought  to  be,  is  never  discouraged.  To  be  discour- 
aged, is  to  show  a  lack  of  bravery,  and  thus  to  fail  in 
virtue. 

He  who  has  the  strong  will  can  say  No.  He  can  re- 
sist all  enticements  to  do  wrong.  He  can  stand  alone 
against  all  others  in  what  he  sees  to  be  right.  This  is 
often  the  hardest  thing  that  any  one  can  do.     It  is  easy 


44  DUTY. 

to  follow  others,  but  to  stand  out  against  them  when  we 
see  that  they  are  wrong,  shows  the  rarest  and  the  hard- 
est kind  of  courage.     He  who  can  do  this  is  a  hero. 

(3)    Duties  to  Others. 

We  have  been  talking  about  duties  to  ourselves,  which 
would  lay  their  claim  upon  any  person,  even  if  he  were 
alone  upon  the  earth.  But  no  person  is  alone  upon  the 
earth,  and  no  one  has  the  right  to  shut  himself  up,  or 
hold  himself  aloof  from  others.  If  he  should  try  to  live 
in  solitude,  he  would  still  have  social  duties,  and  these 
would  bind  him  so  long  as  he  should  remain  alive.  We 
cannot  hide  ourselves  so  secretly  that  duties  to  others 
will  not  find  us. 

Our  duties  to  our  kind  reach  as  far  as  human  beings 
can  be  found.  Human  hearts  are  bound  together,  the 
world  over,  and  nothing  can  happen  to  one  anywhere, 
without  affecting  others  everywhere.  To  see  our  duties 
to  our  kind  therefore,  we  should  have  wide  views.  While 
we  have  special  duties  to  our  friends,  our  family,  our 
country,  we  should  guard  ourselves  against  the  narrow 
thought,  which  would  satisfy  itself  with  these,  and  which 
does  not  reach  to  human  life  wherever  found. 

Owe  no  man  anything,  but  to  love  one  another,  covers 
all  our  duties  to  others. 


DUTIES    TO    OTHERS.  45 

This  maxim  reaches  over  two  great  fields.  It  takes 
in  what  is  due  to  a  man's  rights  and  what  is  due  to  his 
needs. 

Every  human  being  has  certain  rights  which  he  may 
claim  until  they  are  forfeited  by  his  own  act,  and  beyond 
this  also  he  possesses  certain  needs  which  remain  until 
removed  by  the  act  of  another.  The  rights  mark  his 
independence,  while  his  needs  show  how  little  any 
human  being  can  stand  alone.  What  is  due  to  a  per- 
son's rights  is  the  duty  of  justice,  what  is  due  to  his 
needs  is  the  duty  of  kindness.  These  two,  then, —  the 
duty  of  justice  and  the  duty  of  kindness, —  are  what 
each  man  owes  to  his  fellow-men. 

(i)    Duties  of  justice. 

Justice  requires  every  person  to  render  what  is  clue 
to  every  other  person's  rights.  As  there  are  various 
rights,  so  there  are  various  duties. 

A.    The  duty  of  courtesy. 

The  first  duty  of  justice  to  others  is  that  of  courtesy. 
Every  human  being  owes  this  duty  to  every  other. 
Such  is  the  dignity  of  human  nature,  and  such  the 
rights  which  it  may  claim. 

The  duty  of  courtesy  is  quite  independent  of  rank  or 
station.     It  is  more  and  better  to  be  a  man  than  to  be  a 


46  DUTY. 

king.  Men  are  children  of  God,  and  no  station  can  be 
so  glorious  as  to  outshine  or  so  ignoble  as  to  obscure 
the  light  of  this  high  parentage.  We  should  therefore 
honor  all  men,  the  poor  and  the  weak  as  truly  as  the 
rich  and  the  strong.  The  vicious  man  or  the  criminal, 
however  abandoned,  is  still  a  man,  and  however  we 
may  abhor  his  vice  or  crime,  we  may  not  abhor  him. 

The  duty  of  courtesy  requires  respectful  treatment  of 
every  human  being  by  every  other  wherever  this  can  be 
shown.  There  are  forms  which  common  use  has  set  for 
showing  this  respect,  but  the  great  thing  needed  is  a 
respectful  heart,  and  this  will  always  show  itself  in 
a  respectful  way.  We  should  therefore  cultivate  such  a 
heart.  We  should  seek  to  be  respectful.  We  should 
accustom  ourselves  to  courteous  thoughts  and  ways. 
We  should  be  civil  in  word  and  deed.  All  vulgarity  or 
rudeness  of  speech  or  manner  will  be  shunned  by  every 
heart  which  values  virtue. 

B.     The  duty  of  doing  no  harm  to  another's  life. 

To  take  the  life  of  another,  who  has  not  forfeited  it  by 
his  own  act,  is  felt  by  all  to  be  one  of  the  greatest  of 
crimes.  We  may  and  should  defend  ourselves  from 
attack,  and  he  who  attacks  us  has  thereby  given  up  his 
right  to  his  life  to  a  degree  which  permits  us  to  take  it, 


DUTIES    TO    OTHERS.  47 

if  necessary  to  preserve  our  own.  Both  the  courts  and 
our  own  consciences,  in  such  a  case,  acquit  us  of  all 
wrong.  But  if  we  strike  a  needless  blow,  even  in  self- 
defence,  we  are  not  justified. 

To  plan  to  take  another's  life  is  condemned  by  the 
courts  and  by  the  common  judgment  of  men,  even  if 
the  plan  is  not  carried  out.  And  to  be  willing  to  make 
such  a  plan,  even  if  never  noticed  by  the  courts,  would 
be  felt  by  every  healthy  conscience  to  be  wrong;  so 
sacred  is  human  life. 

The  duty  of  doing  no  harm  to  another's  life  forbids 
all  hurt  in  wantonness  or  ill-intent  to  another's  body. 
All  thoughtless  sport,  all  malice  or  revenge  which  brings 
upon  another's  body  pain  or  injury,  is  not  only  doing 
wrong  to  the  doer's  own  soul  in  his  exercise  of  unlawful 
passion  and  his  want  of  self-restraint,  but  grossly  wrongs 
the  other's  rights.  The  duty  we  have  already  noticed 
of  preserving  our  own  life  and  health  makes  it  clearly 
our  duty  ever  to  regard  the  bodily  well-being  of 
another. 

C.    The  duty  to  respect  another  s  right  to  freedom. 
We  must  keep  in  mind  that  it  is  the  truth  only  which 
makes  us  free.    True  freedom  is  obedience  to  the  truth. 
One  is  therefore  free,  not  because  he  can  do  what  he 


48  DUTY. 

chooses,  but  because  he  does  and  chooses  only  his  duty 
to  the  truth.  If  every  one  were  to  do  only  what  he 
might  choose  to  do  without  regard  to  what  he  ought  to 
choose,  every  one  would  be  a  slave,  and  there  could  be 
no  society  among  men.  One  has  the  right  to  freedom 
because  he  has  the  power  to  know  and  choose  the 
truth. 

All  men  are  born  with  an  equal  right  to  freedom. 
They  are  not  born  with  equal  powers  of  body  or  of 
mind,  or  with  equal  possession  of  many  other  privileges, 
but  the  right  of  freedom  comes  with  their  life,  and 
belongs  to  all  alike.  The  child  needs  control  and  care 
and  education  to  fit  him  for  the  use  of  this  high  gift, 
and  older  persons  still  need  law  and  government  to 
restrain  and  teach  them  so  that  they  may  know  and 
keep  their  freedom.  So  also  wrong-doers  become  the 
slaves  of  wrong  and  need  to  be  restrained.  But  all 
these  looked  at  closely  only  make  more  evident  the  rule 
that  freedom  is  the  birthright  alike  of  every  human 
soul.  Every  one  ought  to  see  this  as  fully  in  another 
as  in  himself.  It  is  as  much  his  duty  to  respect 
another's  freedom   as  to  keep  his  own. 

This  great   duty   has  various   branches,  as  there  arc 
various  fields  of  freedom. 


DUTIES    TO    OTHERS. 


49 


a.  Freedom  of  person. 

Slavery  in  the  sense  that  one  man  may  be  owned  as 
property,  and  be  bought  and  sold  by  other  men,  is  now 
acknowledged  to  be  a  wrong,  and  has  well-nigh  ceased 
throughout  the  Christian  world.  But  there  are  other 
ways  of  interfering  with  another's  personal  freedom  still 
found  among  us,  which  have  all  the  wrong  and  some- 
times all  the  cruelty  of  slavery.  These  are  often  seen, 
as  when  the  rich  and  strong  bind  the  poor  and  weak, 
or  when  the  poor  and  weak  band  together  to  put  bur- 
dons  upon  the  rich  and  strong ;  when  the  employer 
exacts  undue  conditions  of  his  workmen,  or  the  work- 
man of  his  employer,  or  of  his  fellow-workman;  or  — 
to  put  them  all  together  —  when  one  uses  any  power 
or  privilege  which  he  possesses  to  hamper  any  power 
or  privilege  of  another. 

We  must  remember  all  the  while  that  human  beings 
have  their  right  to  freedom  simply  because  they  are 
human,  and  not  because  of  any  power  or  privilege  which 
only  some  possess.  And  when  we  fail  to  think  of  this, 
and  let  our  thoughts  be  led  in  ways  which  keep  another 
from  exactly  the  same  freedom  as  our  own,  we  have 
turned  ourselves  away  from  the  truth,  and  have  put 
upon  ourselves  the  same  bondage  which  we  seek  to 
bring  upon  him. 


50  DUTY. 

b.  Freedom  of  thought. 

It  is  very  easy  to  dislike  those  who  think  differently 
from  ourselves.  We  are  apt  to  treat  them  harshly. 
Some  of  the  greatest  cruelties  have  come  from  the 
unwillingness  of  people  to  tolerate  a  different  way  of 
thinking  from  their  own. 

But  all  this  is  wrong.  We  have  no  right  to  judge 
another,  or  to  condemn  him  for  his  opinions.  We  do 
not  know  his  inner  thoughts  as  he  does.  If  we  could 
see  the  reasons  for  them  as  they  seem  to  him,  and  could 
know  the  exact  interpretation  he  gives  them  in  his  inner 
soul,  we  might  for  aught  we  know  approve  them.  Each 
mind  must  always  have  some  light  which  does  not  shine 
upon  another.  And  where  so  much  is  hid  we  may  not 
condemn. 

We  ought  to  practise  ourselves  and  yield  to  others 
perfect  freedom  of  thought.  We  should  watch  closely 
that  we  ourselves  do  not  take  narrow  views,  and  are 
not  blinded  by  our  prejudices  or  our  passions.  We 
should  bring  all  our  judgments  into  the  light  of  truth, 
and  when  we  find  this  light  we  should  let  it  shine  on 
other  minds  as  well  as  on  our  own.  In  this  way  only 
should  we  seek  to  change  their  thoughts.  It  is  not  the 
uncontrolled  thought,  but  the  thought  controlled  by  the 
truth,  which  is  truly  free. 


DUTIES    TO    OTHERS.  5l 

Moreover  if  we  could  control  another's  thought  by 
any  other  force  than  that  of  the  truth,  we  should  find 
that,  when  its  freedom  had  ceased,  the  thought  itself 
had  ceased.  Thought  cannot  live  if  enslaved.  The 
light  of  truth  is  the  only  living  power  of  thought,  and 
when  this  is  given  up  for  any  other  guidance,  the 
thought  has  lost  its  life  and  light.  All  intolerance,  or 
persecution  for  opinion's  sake,  is  the  same  sort  of 
folly  as  would  be  the  putting  out  of  a  person's  eyes 
in  order  to  make  him  see. 

c.  Freedom  of  conscience. 

Conscience  we  have  called  the  eye  and  ear  with  which 
the  soul  sees  and  hears  the  light  and  voice  of  duty.  It 
is  our  most  precious  possession.  It  is  altogether  price- 
less. But  to  keep  the  conscience  clear  and  keen  and 
ever  growing,  we  must  keep  it  free.  The  only  mas- 
tery which  should  control  it  is  that  of  the  truth,  in 
which  alone  is  freedom.  We  should  be  careful  lest 
our  own  consciences  be  dimmed  or  dulled  by  putting 
anything  in  the  place  of  their  own  discernment  of 
duty,  and  we  should  be  just  as  careful  to  maintain 
the  freedom  of  another's  conscience.  We  may  pro- 
claim the  truth,  but  we  may  not  persecute  another 
who  will    not    hear  or   heed   it.      To   his  own   master 


52 


DUTY. 


he  standeth  or  falleth,  and  who  are  we,  that  we  should 
judge  him  ? 

d.  Freedom  of  conduct. 

Freedom,  as  we  have  so  often  noted,  is  obedience  to 
the  truth.  It  is  therefore  always  dutiful.  It  is  the  child 
of  law,  and  is  therefore  always  law-abiding.  When  our 
own  self-wills  are  put  in  the  place  of  the  truth,  or 
our  passions  or  desires  rule  us,  instead  of  duty,  this  is 
slavery,  and  not  freedom.  Unbounded  liberty  is  as 
different  from  unlimited  license,  as  peace  is  different 
from  war,  or  life  from  death. 

Keeping  this  in  mind,  we  need  never  fear  the  enlarge- 
ment of  liberty.  On  the  other  hand,  we  should  desire 
this  and  labor  for  it.  Wherever  the  truth  is,  there  is 
freedom.  Whenever  therefore  we  seek  to  give  free- 
dom its  widest  range  in  the  conduct  of  men,  we  should 
first  and  foremost  seek  to  bring  upon  men's  minds  the 
clear  light  and  unerring  voice  of  the  truth. 

"  Truth  is  the  strong  thing.     Let  man's  life  be  true  ! "  x 

D.    The  duty  of  respecting  another  s  right  to  property. 

Property  is  what  one  has  the  right  to  use  as  he  will. 
There  are  two  kinds  of  property.  That  which  can  be 
carried  about   with   the  owner,  as  goods  or  money,  is 

1  Browning:    In  a  Balcony. 


DUTIES    TO    OTHERS.  53 

called  personal  property  ;  and  that  which  is  fixed  and 
cannot  be  carried  about,  as  land  and  houses,  is  called 
real  estate. 

There  can  be  no  property  where  there  is  no  freedom. 
Anything  which  has  never  been  owned  can  never  have 
an  owner  until  some  one  takes  it  who  is  free  to  use  it 
as  he  will.     A  slave  can  never  own  property. 

The  right  to  property  therefore  always  comes,  in  the 
first  place,  from  what  some  one  has  freely  done.  He 
has  taken  what  had  no  owner  and  made  it  his  by  his 
own  free  deed.  His  first  property  comes  from  his  free 
appropriation  of  what  nature  furnishes  for  his  free  use. 
Then  he  adds  to  this  his  labor,  and  makes  something 
of  use  or  beauty  which  nature  had  not  made.  This  he 
owns.  It  is  his  property  because  he  has  made  it  with 
his  own  free  work  out  of  what  he  also  owned.  If  he 
is  the  sole  producer,  the  product  belongs  solely  to  him. 
He  can  give  it  away,  he  can  leave  it  to  his  descendants, 
and  thus  yield  to  others  his  right  over  it,  or  he  may  be 
summoned  to  surrender  it  to  society,  as  he  may  his  life, 
when  some  high  duty  calls  him  ;  but  till  something  of 
this  sort  comes  in,  he  has  a  right  to  his  property  as 
he  has  to  his  freedom  or  his  life,  and  with  this  right 
another  may  not  interfere. 


54  DUTY. 

A  person  may  misuse  his  property  so  that  it  may 
harm  both  him  and  others,  but  this  is  true  of  every 
privilege,  and  ought  not  to  hinder  us  from  seeing  that 
the  rights  to  property  are  sacred  rights  which  every 
one  should  sacredly  maintain.  If  these  rights  were  dis- 
regarded, all  peace  and  freedom  would  disappear,  civil- 
ized life  would  sink  to  that  of  the  savage,  and  that  of 
the  savage  would  soon  reach  that  of  the  brute. 

a.    The  right  to  property  makes  it  wrong  to  steal. 

To  steal  is  to  take  for  our  own  pleasure,  and  without 
the  consent  of  the  owner,  anything  belonging  to  another. 
It  may  be  secret  or  open,  it  may  be  for  little  things  or 
large  things,  but  in  every  case  it  is  clearly  wrong. 
Thou  shalt  not  steal  is  a  very  old  commandment,  but 
the  human  conscience  never  ceases  to  bear  witness  to 
its  authority  and  power. 

However  small  the  thing  stolen,  to  steal  is  never 
small.  The  stealing  shows  a  willingness  to  disregard 
another's  rights,  and  this  cannot  be  measured  by  the 
size  or  value  of  what  is  stolen.  The  right  of  the  owner 
to  the  least  part  of  his  property,  is  as  complete  as  his 
right  to  the  greatest,  and  he  who  would  take  the  least 
has  shown  the  choice  which  would  take  the  greatest  also 
if  opportunity  should  favor. 


DUTIES    TO    OTHERS.  55 

b.  All  attempts  to  gain  another's  property  by  fraud 
are  of  course  wrong.  All  cheating  at  trade,  all  false 
weights  and  measures,  all  neglect  to  pay  an  honest  debt, 
all  dishonest  dealings  of  any  kind,  would  be  abhorred 
by  every  pure  soul.  An  honest  person  is  honest  every- 
where and  in  everything. 

E.    The  duty  of  sustaining  another  s  good  name. 

We  ought  not  only  to  show  courtesy  to  others  when 
we  are  with  them,  but  we  have  a  duty  to  their  good 
name  when  absent  from  them.  A  good  name  is  very 
precious.  It  is  rather  to  be  chosen  than  great  riches. 
If  therefore  we  rob  a  person  of  it  by  our  word  or  deed, 
we  have  robbed  him  of  what  is  worth  more  to  him  than 
silver  or  gold,  and  the  stain  of  the  thief  rests  upon  us. 

To  speak  evil  of  others,  to  hold  them  up  to  ridicule 
or  reproach,  is  a  wrong  which  reaches  farther  than  per- 
haps we  think.  Society  depends  upon  the  good  name 
of  its  members.  People  could  not  live  together  but  for 
their  good  name.  To  destroy  the  good  repute  of  a  single 
person  is  to  disturb  the  order  and  darken  the  peace  of 
the  whole  community.  For  this  cause  the  civil  law  puts 
heavy  penalties  upon  what  we  call  slander  and  libel. 
Slander  is  a  statement  made  by  word  of  mouth  against 
another's  good  name,  and  libel  is  a  statement  of  the 


56  DUTY. 

same  sort  put  in  writing  or  in  print.  These  are  crimes 
against  good  order.  They  weaken  our  respect  for 
others.  They  open  the  dour  to  the  invasion  of  every 
right. 

When  evil  deeds  are  threatening  others,  it  may  be 
right  for  us  to  make  the  evil-doer  known.  It  is  right 
to  testify  in  court  to  all  our  knowledge  of  a  crime, 
but  it  is  only  when  society  needs  the  knowledge  for 
its  own  defence  that  it  becomes  right  to  disclose  it. 

F.    The  duty  of  truthfulness  to  others. 

We  have  already  noticed  the  duty  of  keeping  all 
our  inner  thoughts  obedient  to  the  truth.  Thus  only 
do  we  gain  freedom  of  thought  and  strength  of  thought. 

But  we  have  the  wonderful  gift  of  speech  by  which 
we  can  tell  our  thoughts  to  others.  The  gift  of  speech 
is  given  to  us  that  we  may  give  to  others  what  we 
think  and  feel.  It  ought,  therefore,  to  be  truthful. 
It  has  become  all  perverted,  and  has  lost  its  meaning, 
if  it  is  untruthful.  The  untruthful  person  has  put  the 
mint's  stamp  upon  a  piece  of  base  metal.  His  word 
is  a  counterfeit  coin.  When  we  say  to  others  what 
we  do  not  think  or  feel,  we  have  used  the  power  of 
speech  to  overthrow  the  very  purpose  for  which  this 
power  was  given  to  us.     We  could  not  utter  a  greater 


DUTIES    TO    OTHERS.  57 

reproach  upon  the  Wisdom  which  has  endowed  us  with 
this  high  gift,  and  in  our  own  secret  hearts  also  we 
feel  that  we  could  not  utter  a  greater  reproach  against 
ourselves.  Untruthfulness  is  cowardice  and  treachery. 
Every  conscience  feels  its  baseness.  There  is  nothing 
we  resent  so  quickly  or  with  so  keen  a  feeling  as  the 
charge  that  we  have  been  untruthful. 

We  should  guard  ourselves  against  violating  the 
truth  in  what  we  call  little  things.  We  should  weigh 
our  words  and  should  not  speak  at  random.  We  ought 
to  live  so  that  every  one  should  trust  us.  Our  prom- 
ised word  should  be  very  sacred  to  us.  We  should 
never  make  a  promise  which  is  not  right,  but  a  right- 
eous promise  should  be  kept  though  it  cost  us  dearly. 
Regulus  kept  his  promise  to  the  Carthaginians,  though 
he  knew  it  would  cost  him  his  life,  and  the  whole 
world  honors  him   for  it  wherever  the  story  is  told. 

Moreover,  untruthfulness  would  cause  society  to  dis- 
appear. We  cannot  live  with  others  in  unity  and  free- 
dom if  we  are  not  truthful. 

G.  The  duty  of  doing  our  zvork  for  others  honestly 
and  well. 

It  is  related  that  Hiero,  king  of  Phlius,  once  said  to 
Pythagoras :    "  Tell    me,    O    lover  of   wisdom,  what  is 


58  DUTY. 

thy  occupation."  To  which  Pythagoras  replied  :  "  O 
Hiero,  thou  knowest  the  manner  at  the  Olympian 
games,  how  that  some  come  to  contest  for  the  prize, 
and  some  to  sell  their  goods,  and  some  to  see  their 
friends  and  have  good  cheer,  while  others  come  simply 
to  look  on.  Know  then  that  I  belong  to  this  last  class. 
I  am  occupied  solely  with  looking  on."  But  in  saying 
this  he  forgot,  as  Lord  Bacon  has  remarked,  that  in 
this  world  it  is  permitted  only  to  God  and  the  angels 
to  be  lookers-on. 

No  man  liveth  unto  himself.  No  one  can  find  his 
own  wants  supplied  without  some  help  from  others. 
Every  one  has  therefore  something  to  do  for  others  in 
return  for  what  they  do  for  him.  We  are  servants 
of  each  other,  and  we  ought  each  to  see  that  we  render 
our  service  honestly  and  well.  We  may  be  very  weak, 
and  what  we  can  do  may  seem  very  small  ;  but  if  we 
can  give  for  the  service  given  to  us  only  a  grateful  look 
or  word,  we  should  give  it  from  the  heart.  It  is  not 
the  size  of  the  deed  but  the  spirit  of  the  doer  which 
signifies. 

In  the  constant  work  going  on  in  the  world,  the 
work  of  employers  and  employed,  there  should  be  no 
need  of  any  other  eye  to  watch  the  worker  than   his 


DUTIES    TO    OTHERS.  59 

own.  No  watchful  eye  should  be  so  clear  and  close 
as  that  with  which  we  each  should  watch  ourselves 
in  all  our  work.  Every  work  will,  by  and  by,  find 
out  its  worker  and  will  bring  its  true  return  of  honor 
or  disgrace.  To  the  doer  belongs  his  deed.  "  Why 
do  you  take  such  pains  with  that  part  of  your  work 
which  is  not  seen  ? "  one  asked  of  a  great  Greek  artist. 
"The  gods  will  see  it,"  was  the  calm  reply. 

H.   The  duty  of  giving  to  others  a  good  example. 

Every  person's  life  is  a  photographic  plate  on  which, 
with  more  or  less  distinctness,  the  forms  of  the  other 
lives  around  him  are  imprinted.  We  do  not  mingle 
much  with  others'  lives  without  the  likelihood  that 
we  shall  take  on  somewhat  of  their  likeness.  Evil 
communications  corrupt  good  manners,  while  a  soft 
answer  turneth  away  wrath.  Instruction  by  precept 
has  very  little  force  in  comparison  with  the  incite- 
ment of  example. 

Every  one  is  thus  moved  by  example,  and  every 
one  has  the  duty  of  setting  a  good  example  before 
others.  We  should  be  watchful,  lest  we  harm  another 
by  our  word  or  deed.  We  should  guard  our  habits 
and  our  constant  conduct,  that  others  be  not  thereby 
led  astray.      He  who  purposely  tempts  another  to  do 


60  DUTY. 

wrong  is  himself  guilty  of  a  double  wrong,  —  the 
wrong  wrought  by  the  deed  done,  and  the  wrong  of 
leading  the  doer  of  it  astray ;  while  he  who  thought- 
lessly puts  temptation  in  another's  way  ought  to 
have  been  thoughtful,  and  is  not  guiltless. 

(2)  Duties  of  kindness. 

We  have  not  done  our  full  duty  to  others  when  we 
have  been  only  just.  We  ought  to  be  kind  as  well. 
Justice  strives  to  satisfy  the  rights  of  others,  but 
kindness  seeks  to  supply  their  needs.  These  two 
are  very  different.  Justice  would  set  human  lives  as 
trees  are  planted  in  an  orchard,  each  one  in  its  place, 
and  each  one  pruned  and  kept  from  trenching  on 
another's  ground.  But  kindness  grafts  one  human 
life  upon  another  and  makes  of  many  lives  one  living 
growth.  Kindness  would  join  all  lives  in  unity.  It 
does  not  simply  move  where  justice  leads.  It  does 
not  shine  upon  the  good  alone.  Its  light  falls  also 
on  the  evil  and  unthankful.  It  has  its  sympathy  for 
every  sorrow.  It  would  supply  all  needs.  Justice  is 
exactly  honest.  It  pays  all  debts  as  they  are  due. 
But  kindness  does  not  hold  the  scales  to  balance 
debt  and  credit.  It  does  not  simply  seek  exact  ad- 
justments.     It   has   the  open   eye  and   open   hand,   to 


DUTIES    TO    OTHERS.  6 1 

see  and  succor  needy  human  lives,  even  where  there 
is  no  honest  claim. 

That  kindness  from  each  human  being  to  all,  and 
from  all  to  each,  is  a  duty  needs  no  proof.  If  proof 
were  needed,  we  should  find  it  in  the  common  speech 
which  calls  charity  the  god-like  virtue,  and  which 
brands  unkindness  as  inhuman.  Let  us  note  the 
calls  for  kindness,  and  the  ways  in  which  it  should 
be  shown. 

A.    The  relief  of  poverty. 

There  are  always  the  poor.  If  all  the  riches  of  the 
world  were  divided  equally  among  all  people,  some 
would  use  their  portion  wastefully,  and  some  would  use 
theirs  wisely ;  some  would  soon  lose  all  that  they  had 
received,  and  some  would  soon  gain  much  more,  mak- 
ing soon  again  as  great  an  inequality  as  ever.  What 
then  shall  we  do  for  the  poor?  If  the  poor  have  been 
impoverished  by  fraud,  if  they  have  been  deprived 
dishonestly  of  what  is  rightly  theirs,  justice  should 
find  a  remedy  and  right  the  wrong.  But  it  is  only  a 
part,  perhaps  the  smaller  part,  of  the  poverty  of  the 
world  which  comes  from  the  unjust  dealings  of  man 
with  man.  Vice  and  self-indulgence,  sickness,  igno- 
rance, and  want  of  thrift,  great  and  unavoidable  calami- 


62  DUTY. 

tics,  give  constant  cause  for  poverty.  If  all  men's 
dealings,  therefore,  with  each  other  were  done  justly 
and  honestly,  the  poor  would  still  be  with  us,  and  jus- 
tice would  know  no  way  to  reach  them.  Philosophers 
who  would  regulate  human  life  altogether  by  the  prin- 
ciples of  justice  have  no  means  for  the  removal  of 
poverty  but  to  let  it  alone. 

But  kindness  is  not  satisfied  with  this.  Kindness 
moves  towards  the  poor.  It  calls  upon  the  strong  to 
bear  the  infirmities  of  the  weak.  It  bids  us  seek  out 
want  and  destitution  that  we  may  give  relief.  If  we 
open  our  hearts,  as  we  should,  to  what  is  kind,  we 
should  be  generous  as  well  as  just ;  we  should  go  to 
the  poor  without  waiting  for  them  to  come  to  us  that 
we  may  help  them.  If  we  can  do  but  little,  we  shall 
do  what  we  can,  if  we  are  truly  kind. 

But  we  should  be  careful  here.  Charity  should  be 
wise.  It  is  quite  easy  to  try  to  help  the  poor  by  ways 
which  only  harm  them.  The  poor  are  human,  and 
should  be  led  by  all  our  efforts  for  them  to  a  larger 
sense  of  manliness.  Our  gifts  should  not  impair  their 
self-respect  or  self-reliance.  Otherwise  they  had 
better  not  be  given.  We  should  not  seek  simply  to 
lift  the  burden  from  the  poor,  but  to  lift  the  poor  them- 


DUTIES    TO    OTHERS.  63 

selves  above  their  burdens  by  the  better  thoughts  and 
larger  life  we  bring  them.  Gifts  of  money,  gifts  of  food 
or  clothing,  gifts  which  satisfy  a  bodily  want  and  go 
no  farther,  are  like  water  poured  upon  a  desert,  which 
the  desert  soon  drinks  up  and  is  as  dry  as  it  was  be- 
fore. But  gifts  by  which  we  reach  the  inner  life,  and 
through  their  bodily  help  give  help  also  to  the  soul, 
open  a  living  spring  in  the  desert  and  make  the  barren 
land  a  fruitful  field.  True  kindness  is  not  satisfied 
until  the  depths  of  human  life  are  reached  and 
renovated. 

B.  The  readiness  to  receive  help. 

It  is  more  blessed  to  give  than  to  receive,  and  if  we 
are  truly  kind,  we  should  be  as  willing  to  receive  as  to 
give.  True  kindness  is  not  coy  of  proffered  favors.  It 
receives  them  readily.  It  would  be  as  unkind  to  others, 
as  it  would  be  wanting  in  true  self-respect,  to  try  to 
stand  aloof  when  others  try  to  help  us.  Genuine  kind- 
ness is  as  different  from  the  shy  and  selfish  spirit, 
which  is  willing  to  receive  only  just  what  has  been 
given,  as  it  is  from  the  cold  and  calculating  spirit, 
which  will  give  only  just  as  much  as  has  been  received. 

C.  The  seeking  the  good  of  others  always. 

If  we  are  truly  kind,  we  shall  do  all  the  good  to  others 


64  DUTY. 

that  we  can.  We  shall  give  them  our  sympathy  in  their 
sorrow  and  be  ever  willing  to  reach  the  helping  hand 
for  their  relief.  We  shall  be  watchful  for  occasions 
when  we  can  render  others  help.  If  we  see  a  threat- 
ening danger  to  another  which  he  does  not  see,  kind- 
ness would  prompt  us  to  guard  him  from  it  as  we  would 
ourselves.  If  we  are  in  a  company  where  another's 
good  name  is  brought  into  reproach,  true  kindness  will 
not  permit  us  to  stay  without  some  sign,  at  least,  of  our 
disapprobation.  Kindness  would  lead  to  a  much  more 
careful  treatment  than  justice  requires  of  the  person, 
property,  and  reputation  of  another.  Kindness  guards 
all  rights  as  carefully  as  does  justice  itself.  But  it 
gives  its  help  beyond  what  any  rights  can  claim.  True 
kindness  is  true  charity,  and  charity  never  faileth. 

D.   Kindness  to  animals. 

The  duty  of  kindness  is  not  fully  done  unless  we  are 
also  kind  to  animals.  Cruelty  to  animals  is  a  crime  by 
the  laws  of  many  states.  In  common  speech  it  is 
called  inhuman.  This  is  not  because  the  animals  have 
rights,  but  because  no  person  ought  to  cause  a  needless 
pain  to  any  creature. 

Animals  were  given  to  us  for  our  use,  and  we  should 
use  them  wisely.     To  be  cruel  to  them  or  thoughtless 


DUTIES    TO    GOVERNMENT.  65 

of  their  pain  is  to  make  ourselves  hard-hearted  and 
indifferent  to  human  sufferings  as  well.  The  merciful 
man  is  merciful  to  his  beast. 

"  He  prayeth  best  who  loveth  best 
All  things  both  great  and  small ; 
For  the  dear  God  who  loveth  us, 
He  made  and  loveth  all."  1 

(4.)  Duties  to  Government. 

There  could  not  be  any  human  society  without  some 
sort  of  government.  If  there  were  only  two  persons  in 
the  land,  there  would  be  need,  when  these  were  brought 
together,  of  something  to  tell  how  each  should  act 
towards  the  other.  If  more  than  two  should  come 
together,  this  need  would  be  still  more  apparent,  and 
where  there  are  multitudes,  nothing  can  be  clearer  than 
that  the  very  existence  of  their  society  depends  upon 
the  existence  of  something  which  controls  their  inter- 
course with  one  another.     This  control  is  government. 

But  such  a  need  for  government  brings  no  burden. 
Government  is  one  of  the  greatest  of  blessings. 
Though  some  kinds  of  government  are  much  better 
than  others,  any  kind  is  better  than  none ;  for  to  be 

1  Coleridge :  The  Ancient  Mariner. 


66  DUTY. 

without  government  would  mean  the  destruction  of 
society,  and  this  would  mean  the  destruction  of  man- 
kind. 

We  have  therefore  clearly  certain  duties  to  the  gov- 
ernment of  the  land  in  which  we  live. 

(i)    The  duty  of  obedience. 

The  rules  which  the  government  lays  down  for  our 
control  are  called  laws.  These  laws  are  very  precious. 
In  a  free  land  they  are  the  source  and  strength  of  free- 
dom. They  ought  therefore  to  be  joyously  obeyed.  It 
is  true  they  are  not  always  perfect ;  they  are  sometimes 
very  imperfect.  But  unless  they  call  upon  us  to  do 
what  our  conscience  tells  us  we  ought  not  to  do,  we 
should  obey  them,  seeking  always,  by  all  lawful  means, 
to  make  them  better. 

This  duty  of  obedience  is  just  as  binding  when  we 
are  travelling  or  sojourning  in  a  foreign  land  as  when 
we  are  in  our  own. 

(2)   The  duty  of  service. 

We  owe  the  government  more  than  simple  obedi- 
ence. We  should  serve  it  in  every  way  we  can.  We 
should  not  only  be  law-abiding  ourselves,  but  should 
seek  to  make  others  law-abiding  also.  If  we  have  the 
right  to  vote,  we  should  use  the  right  and  cast  our  vote 


DUTIES    TO    GOVERNMENT.  67 

honestly.  If  we  are  called  upon  to  serve  the  govern- 
ment in  official  station,  it  may  be  right  for  us  to  give 
up  cherished  plans  for  other  work,  that  we  may  do  this 
service.  If  there  is  a  call  for  military  service,  we  may 
have  a  duty  to  respond.  We  should  do  whatever  lies 
within  our  power  to  make  the  government  under  which 
we  live  wiser  and  stronger. 

(3)    The  duty  of  paying  tribute. 

The  government  must  tax  its  subjects  for  its  own 
support.  It  has  no  other  means  of  support,  and  the 
subject  should  render  this  support  willingly  and  hon- 
estly. He  should  not  evade  taxation.  He  should  be 
ready  to  pay  his  fair  proportion  of  what  the  government 
needs.  All  concealment  of  his  property  to  avoid  tax- 
ation is  a  shirking  of  his  duty. 


68  DUTY. 


III.    THE   CULTURE   OF   THE    MORAL   LIFE. 

There  can  be  but  one  straight  way  between  two 
points,  but  there  can  be  many  crooked  ones ;  and  so 
there  can  be  but  one  right  path  in  a  given  case,  though 
unnumbered  wrong  ones.  It  is  easy  to  go  astray,  and 
we  need  great  care  to  walk  aright.  The  old  Greeks 
used  to  call  wrong-doing  a  missing  of  the  mark,  and 
this  is  easy,  while  to  hit  the  mark  needs  a  clear  eye,  a 
steady  hand,  and  careful  training. 

How  shall  we  most  surely  walk  in  the  right  path  ? 
How  shall  we  best  gain  this  skill  in  virtue  ? 

We  need  to  remember  first  that  it  is  only  the  good 
which  makes  good.  Evil  produces  only  evil.  We  do 
not  learn  to  do  right  by  doing  wrong. 

We  may  make  a  mistake  or  meet  a  misfortune,  which 
having  suffered  once  we  may  thereby  learn  to  avoid  the 
second  time.  But  to  do  wrong  is  more  tharf  a  mistake 
or  a  misfortune.  It  is  a  misbehavior  which  weakens  the 
will  to  do  right,  and  makes  it  easier  to  do  wrong  than 
it  was  before.     To  do  wrong  is  to  lose  strength  ;  and 


THE    CULTURE    OF    THE    MORAL    LIFE.  69 

even  if  it  could  ever  teach  one  anything,  his  wrong- 
doing would  lessen  his  power  to  follow  the  teaching. 

But  to  do  wrong  does  not  teach  one.  This  is  very- 
wonderful,  but  very  clearly  true.  Any  one  who  watches 
human  life  will  see  the  fact  on  every  hand.  Wrong- 
doing does  not  give  the  doer  any  light,  but  only  makes 
his  darkness  deeper.  Wrong-doing  is  always  a  deceiver. 
It  puts  a  lie  in  the  place  of  the  truth,  and  hides  the 
difference  between  them.  The  deception  is,  to  be  sure, 
a  wilful  one  ;  but  there  are  none  so  blind  as  those  who 
will  not  see.  Nothing  is  more  difficult  than  to  dis- 
lodge the  delusions  with  which  we  find  persons  con- 
stantly entangled  by  their  wrong-doings. 

Neither  would  one  be  taught  if  he  had  nothing  but 
the  wrong-doing  of  another  to  teach  him.  If  we  had 
been  born  in  the  dark,  and  had  never  seen  or  heard  of 
the  light,  we  should  not  know  even  the  darkness.  The 
darkness  has  no  power  to  make  anything  known.  It 
cannot  even  make  itself  known.  The  light  is  sufficient 
to  show  itself,  and  is  needed  to  make  known  the  dark- 
ness.    It  is  only  by  the  light  that  we  can  see. 

In  like  manner,  if  we  were  doing  wrong  all  the  while, 
and  there  were  nothing  but  wrong-doing  all  around  us, 
we  should  be  blind  and  dead  to  all  thought,  either  of 


JO  DUTY. 

the  right  or  wrong,  and  nothing  could  ever  awaken  us 
or  make  us  alive  but  the  light  and  life  of  goodness 
coming  to  us  from  some  one  good  and  doing  good. 

It  is  only  by  the  right  that  we  can  know  the  wrong. 
The  wrong  alone  can  give  no  knowledge  of  anything. 
It  is  like  the  darkness  ;  it  cannot  even  make  itself 
known. 

Hence  it  is  that  the  danger  of  wrong-doing  as  seen 
in  its  results  is  not  sufficient  to  warn  us.  The  right 
only  gives  us  any  warning.  The  pitfall  in  our  path 
does  not  warn  us  by  its  yawning  darkness  until  we  see 
it  by  a  gleam  of  light. 

In  like  manner,  however  terrible  wrong-doing  may 
be,  it  never  terrifies  until,  from  some  source,  there 
breaks  through  it  a  revealing  of  the  light,  like  the 
lightning  from  a  cloud.  It  is  one  of  the  saddest  facts 
of  human  life,  and  as  strange  as  it  is  sad,  that  men 
who  follow  vice  can  keep  their  course  unchanged,  not- 
withstanding the  destruction  which  other  eyes  can 
clearly  see  awaiting  them. 

We  do  not  therefore  improve  men  by  giving  them 
bad  examples  to  study.  Life  alone  begets  life,  and  life 
is  nourished  only  by  life. 

It  is  not  by  the  precepts  of  moral  living,  but  by  the 


THE    CULTURE    OF    THE    MORAL    LIFE.  J\ 

example  of  a  moral  life,  that  we  are  truly  taught  how 
to  live.  The  improvement  of  our  moral  life,  its  wise 
and  fruitful  culture,  will  only  come  as  we  come  close 
to  those  whose  lives  of  justice  and  of  kindness,  of 
purity  and  of  truth,  both  show  us  what  goodness  is, 
and  kindle  us  to  goodness  also.  And  if  we  can  ever 
find  a  life  to  show  us  what  the  Perfect  Man  upon  the 
earth  can  do  and  be,  a  life  of  perfect  love,  so  just  and 
kind,  so  pure  and  true,  that  evil-doing  fades  before  it 
as  the  night  before  the  morning,  and  goodness  blos- 
soms at  its  coming  as  the  flowers  at  the  coming  of 
the  sun,  will  it  not  be  wise  to  bring  ourselves  where 
this  Light  of  Life  can  shine  upon  us  and  give  us  light 
and  life  and  healing  in  its  beams? 


PHILOSOPHY. 


Empirical  Psychology ; 


or,  The  Human  Mind  as  Given  in  Consciousness. 

By  Laurens  P.  Hickok,  D.D.,  LL.D.  Revised  with  the  co-operation  of 
Julius  H.  Seelye,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  Ex-Prest.  of  Amherst  College.  12mo. 
300  pages.  Mailing  Price,  $1.25;  Introduction,  $1.12;  Allowance,  40 
cents. 

rpHE  publishers  believe  that  this  book  will  be  found  to  be  re- 
markably comprehensive,  and  at  the  same  time  compact  and 
clear.      It  gives  a  complete  outline  oi  the  science,  concisely  pre- 
sented, and  in  precise  and  plain  terms. 

It  has  proved  of  special  value  to  teachers,  as  is  evidenced  by  its 
recent  adoption  for  several  Heading  Circles. 


John  Bascom,  formerly  Pres.  Univ. 
of  Wisconsin,  Madison  :  It  is  an  ex- 
cellent book.  It  has  done  much  good 
service,  and,  as  revised  by  President 
Seelye.  is  prepared  to  do  much  more. 
(Feb.  3,  1882.) 

I.  W.  Andrews,  Prof,  of  Intellec- 


tual Philosophy,  Marietta  Coller/e, 
().:  This  new  edition  may  be  confi- 
dently recommended  as  presenting  a 
delineation  of  the  mental  faculties  so 
clear  and  accurate  that  the  careful 
student  will  hardly  fail  to  recognize 
its  truth  in  his  own  experience. 
(April  6,  1882.) 


Hickok' s  Moral  Science. 

By  Laurens  P.  Hickok,  D.D.,  LL.D.  Revised  with  the  co-operation  of 
Julius  H.  Seelye,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  Ex-Prest.  of  Amherst  College.  12mo. 
Cloth.  288  pages.  Mailing  Price,  $1.25;  Introduction,  $1.12;  Allowance, 
40  cents. 

A  S  revised  by  Dr.  Seelye,  it  is  believed  that  this  work  will  be 
found  unsurpassed  in  systematic  rigor  and  scientific  precision, 
and  at  the  same  time  remarkably  clear  and  simple  in  style. 


G.  P.  Fisher,  Prof,  of  Chvrch  His- 
tory, Yale  College  :  The  style  is  so 
perspicuous,  and  at  the  same  time  so 


adapted  to  serve  as  a  text-hook  in 
colleges  and  higher  schools.  In  mat- 
ter and  manner  it  is  a  capital  book, 


concise,  that  the  work  is  eminently  i  aud  I  wish  it  God  speed. 


llitj  PHILOSOPHY. 

Lotze's  Philosophical  Outlines. 

Dictated  Portions  of  the  Latest  Lectures  (at  Gottingen  and  Berlin)  of 
Hermann  Lotze.  Translated  and  edited  by  George  T.  Ladd,  Pro- 
fessor of  Philosophy  in  Yale  College.  12mo.  Cloth.  About  180  pages 
in  each  volume.  Mailing  Price  per  volume,  $1.00;  Introduction  Price, 
80  cents. 

PTUIE  German  from  which  the  translations  are  made  consists  of 
the  dictated  portions  of  his  latest  lectures  (at  Gottingen,  and 
for  a  few  months  at  Berlin)  as  formulated  by  Lotze  himself, 
recorded  in  the  notes  of  his  hearers,  and  subjected  to  the  most 
competent  and  thorough  revision  of  Professor  Rehnisch  of  Got- 
tingen. The  Outlines  give,  therefore,  a  mature  and  trustworthy 
statement,  in  language  selected  by  this  teacher  of  philosophy  him- 
self, of  what  may  be  considered  as  his  final  opinions  upon  a 
wide  range  of  subjects.  They  have  met  with  no  little  favor  in 
Germany. 

These  translations  have  been  undertaken  with  the  kind  permis- 
sion of  the  German  publisher,  Heir  S.  Hirzel,  of  Leipsic. 

Outlines  of  Metaphysic. 

rPIIIS  contains  the  scientific  treatment  of  those  assumptions 
which  enter  into  all  our  cognition  of  Reality.  It  consists  of 
three  parts,  —  Ontology,  Cosmology,  Phenomenology.  The  first 
part  contains  chapters  on  the  Conception  of  Being,  the  Content  of 
the  Existent,  Reality,  Change,  and  Causation ;  the  second  treats 
of  Space,  Time,  Motion,  Matter,  and  the  Coherency  of  Natural 
Events  ;  the  third,  of  the  Subjectivity  and  Objectivity  of  Cog- 
nition. The  Metaphysic  of  Lotze  gives  the  key  to  his  entire 
philosophical  system. 

Outlines  of  the  Philosophy  of  Religion. 

T  OTZE  here  seeks  "to  ascertain  how  much  of  the  Content  of 
Religion  may  be  discovered,  proved,  or  at  least  confirmed, 
agreeably  to  reason."  He  discusses  the  Proof  for  the  Existence  of 
God,  the  Attributes  and  Personality  of  the  Absolute,  the  Concep- 
tions of  the  Creation,  the  Preservation,  and  the  Government,  of  the 
World,  and  of  the  World-time.  The  book  closes  with  brief  discus- 
sions of  Religion  and  Morality,  and  Dogmas  and  Confessions. 


PHILOSOPHY.  127 

Outlines  of  Practical  Philosophy. 

rFHIS  contains  a  discussion  of  Ethical  Principles,  Moral  Ideals, 
and  the  Freedom  of  the  Will,  and  then  an  application  of  the 
theory  to  the  Individual,  to  Marriage,  to  Society,  and  to  the  State. 
Many  interesting  remarks  on  Divorce,  Socialism,  Representative 
Government,  etc.,  abound  throughout  the  volume.  Its  style  is 
more  popular  than  that  of  the  other  works  of  Lotze,  and  it  will 
doubtless  be  widely  read. 

Outlines  of  Psychology. 

HHHE  Outlines  of  Psychology  treats  of  Simple  Sensations,  the 
Course  of  Representative  Ideas,  of  Attention  and  Inference, 
of  Intuitions,  of  Objects  as  in  Space,  of  the  Apprehension  of  the 
External  World  by  the  Senses,  of  Errors  of  the  Senses,  of  Feelings, 
and  of  Bodily  Motions.  Its  second  part  is  "  theoretical, "  and  dis- 
cusses the  nature,  position,  and  changeable  states  of  the  Soul,  its 
relations  to  time,  and  the  reciprocal  action  of  Soul  and  Body. 
It  closes  with  a  chapter  on  the  "Kingdom  of  Souls."  Lotze  is 
peculiarly  rich  and  suggestive  in  the  discussion  of  Psychology. 

Outlines  of  /Esthetics. 

rpiIE  Outlines  of  ^Esthetics  treats  of  the  theory  of  the  Beautiful 
and  of  Phantasy,  and  of  the  Realization  and  Different  Species 
of  the  Beautiful.  Then  follow  brief  chapters  on  Music,  Architec- 
ture, Plastic  Art,  Painting,  and  Poetry.  This,  like  the  other  vol- 
umes, has  a  full  index. 

Outlines  of  Logic. 

fTTIIS  discusses  both  pure  and  applied  Logic.  The  Logic  is 
followed  by  a  brief  treatise  on  the  Encyclopaedia  of  Phi- 
losophy, in  which  are  set  forth  the  definition  and  method  of 
Theoretical  Philosophy,  of  Practical  Philosophy,  and  of  the  Phi- 
losophy of  Religion.  This  volume  is  about  one-fifth  larger  than 
tlie  others,  and  makes  an  admirable  brief  text-book  in  Losnc. 


Mind,  London,  Kng. :  No  words 
are  needed  to  commend  such  an  en- 
terprise, now  that  Lotze 's  importance 


as  a  thinker  is  so  well  understood. 
The  translation  is  careful  and  pains- 
taking. 


T 


128  PHILOSOPHY. 

A  Brief  History  of  Greek  Philosophy. 

By  B.  C.  Burt,  M.A.,  Docent  of  Philosophy,  Clark  University.    12mo. 
Cloth,     xiv  +  2'Jti  pages.    Mailing  price,  $1.25;    for  introduction,  $1.12. 

HIS  work  attempts  to  give  a  concise  but  comprehensive  account 
of  Greek  Philosophy  on  its  native  soil  and  in  Rome.  It  is 
critical  and  interpretative,  as  well  as  purely  historical,  its  para- 
graphs of  criticism  and  interpretation,  however,  being,  as  a  rule, 
distinct  from  those  devoted  to  biography  and  exposition.  The 
wants  of  the  reader  or  student  \\\\o  desires  to  comprehend,  rather 
than  merely  to  inform  himself,  have  particularly  been  in  the  mind 
of  the  author,  whose  aim  has  been  to  let  the  subject  unfold  itself 
as  far  as  possible.  The  volume  contains  a  full  topical  table  of  con- 
tents, a  brief  bibliography  of  the  subject  it  treats,  and  numerous 
foot-notes  embracing  references  to  original  authorities  and  assist- 
ing the  student  towards  a  real  contact  with  the  Greek  thinkers 
themselves. 


G.  Stanley  Hall,  Pres.  Clark  Uni- 
versity :  His  book  is  the  best  of  its 
kind  upon  the  subject. 

Geo.  S.  Morris,  late  Prof,  of  Phil- 
osophy in  Michigan  University : 
What  Professor  Burt  has  done  is  to 
collect  in  compendious  form  what 
is.  most  characteristic  and  of  most 
essential  significance  in  these  results 
of  philosophical  investigation,  and 


then  to  re-interpret  or  re-exhibit 
them  in  the  light  of  the  more  mature 
fruits  of  modern  inquiry.  This  is 
the  best  and  most  serviceable  kind 
of  originality. 

W.  T.  Harris,  Editor  Jovr. of  Spec- 
ulative Philosophy :  I  have  found 
this  work  in  philosophy  to  possess 
high  merit.  His  grasp  of  the  history 
of  the  subject  is  rare  and  trustworthy. 


The    M  Odd  list  ;     or.    The  Laws  of  Rational  Conviction. 

A  Text-Book  in  Formal  or  General  Losric.  Bv  Edward  John  Hamil- 
ton, D.D.,  Albert  Barnes  Professor  of  Intellectual  Philosophy,  Ham- 
ilton College,  N.Y.  12mo.  Cloth.  pages.  Price,  by  mail,  ; 
for  introduction, 

''PUIS  book-,  which  the  publishers  believe  a  noteworthy  one,  is 
called  The  Modalixt,  because  it  restores  modal  propositions 
and  modal  syllogisms  to  the  place  of  importance  which  they  occu- 
pied in  the  Logic  of  Aristotle.  The  author  thinks  that  universal 
and  particular  categorical  propositions  cannot  be  understood,  as 
principles  of  reasoning,  and  as  employed  in  "mediate  inference," 
unless  the  one  be  regarded  as  expressing  a  necessary  and  the  other 
a  contingent  sequence.     Therefore,  also,  he  explains  the  pure  syl- 


PHILOSOPHY. 


129 


logism  by  the  modal.     Moreover,  there   are   modes  of   reasoning 
which  can  be  formulated  only  in  modal  syllogisms. 

Logic  is  the  science,  not  of  thought  simply  as  such,  but  of 
thought  as  the  instrument  of  rational  conviction,  and  therefore  of 
thought  in  its  relation  to  metaphysics,  which  is  the  science  of  the 
nature  and  laws  of  things.  Some  radical  modifications  of  logical 
doctrine  have  resulted  from  the  thorough-going  application  of  this 
principle,  and  these,  it  is  believed,  have  added  greatly  to  the  intel- 
ligibility of  the  science. 


Mechanism  and  Personality. 

By  Francis  A.  Shoup,  D.D.,  Professor  of  Analytical  Physics,  Univer- 
sity of  the  South.  12mo.  Cloth,  xvi  +  341  pages.  Price  by  mail,  $l.o0  ; 
for  introduction,  $1.20. 

rPHlS  book  is  an  outline  of  Philosophy  in  the  light  of  the  latest 
scientific  research.  It  deals  candidly  and  simply  with  the 
"burning  questions"  of  the  day,  the  object  being  to  help  the 
general  reader  and  students  of  Philosophy  find  their  way  to  some- 
thing like  definite  standing-ground  among  the  uncertainties  of 
science  and  metaphysics.  It  begins  with  physiological  psychology, 
treats  of  the  development  of  the  several  modes  of  personality, 
passes  on  into  metaphysic,  and  ends  in  ethics,  following,  in  a 
general  way,  the  thought  of  Lotze.  It  is  strictly  in  line  with  the 
remark  of  Professor  Huxley,  that  "the  reconciliation  of  physics 
and  metaphysics  lies  in  the  acknowledgment  of  faults  upon  both 
sides ;  in  the  confession  by  physics  that  all  the  phenomena  of 
nature  are,  in  their  ultimate  analysis,  known  to  us  only  as  facts  of 
consciousness;  in  the  admission  by  metaphysics  that  the  facts  of 
consciousness  are,  practically,  interpretable  only  by  the  methods 
and  the  formulae  of  physics." 


George  Trumbull  Ladd,  Prof,  of 
Philosophy,  Yale  University  :  I  find 
Dr.  Shoup's  "  Mechanism  and  Per- 
sonality "  an  interesting  and  stimu- 
lating little  book.  Written,  as  it  is, 
by  one  whose  points  of  view  are 
somewhat  outside  of  those  taken  by 
professional  students  of  philosophy, 
it  is  the  fresher  and  more  suggestive 


on  that  account.  At  the  same  time, 
the  author  has  kept  himself  from 
straying  too  far  away  from  the  con- 
clusions legitimate  to  disciplined 
students  of  the  subject,  by  a  some- 
what close  adherence  to  Lotze,  and 
by  a  considerable  breadth  of  philo- 
sophical reading. 


MONTGOMERY'S 

Histories  of  England  and  France  are  said  by  all  to  be,  in  their 
departments,  unequalled  in  scholarship,  in  true  historic  insight 
and  temper,  in  interest  and  class-room  availability.  They  are 
admittedly  the 

LEADING 

text-books  on  their  subjects.  Their  popularity  and  wide  use 
have  been  duly  proportionate  to  their  merits.  Hundreds 
of  schools  have  introduced  them,  and  all  report  the  greatest 
satisfaction.    These 

FACTS 

led  every  one  to  expect  a  great  deal  of  the  author's  History  of 
the  United  States.  No  one  has  been  disappointed.  The  attrac- 
tive and  enduring  qualities  of  the  other  books  are  here  found 
in  even  higher  degree.     Not  the  least 

OF 

these  are  the  numberless  incidental  touches  of  thought,  fact, 
or  feeling  that  illuminate  the  narrative,  and  both  stimulate  and 
satisfy  the  reader's  interest,  —  one  result  of  the  author's  mas- 
tery of  his  subject.  As  one  would  infer,  the  author  is  thor- 
oughly 

AMERICAN 

in  his  sympathies  and  feelings,  —  too  American,  in  fact,  to  be 
sectarian,  partisan,  local,  or  narrow,  —  and  so  we  find  remark- 
able life  and  breadth,  as  well  as  insight  and  instruction,  in  this 
book.     What  we  have  is,  in  short,  a 

HISTORY 

of  the  American  people,  of  its  development  in  all  departments 
of  activity,  with  both  the  causes  and  the  results  of  great  move- 
ments distinctly  traced  :  a  vivid  and  attractive  panorama  of  the 
leading  facts  of  our  history. 

Introductory  Price,  $1.00. 

GINN    &    COMPANY,    Publishers, 

BOSTON,  NEW   *U*Ufc«  AND  CHICAGO. 


NOT  A  DISSENTING  VOICE 

A8   TO  THE    MERITS   OF 

MONTGOMERY'S   AMERICAN    HISTORY. 

POR  EXAMPLE  :   PROVIDENCE,  R.I. 

I.  Unanimously  desired  by  the  principals. 

Providence,  R.I.,  Dec.  19,  1890. 
Messrs.  Ginn  &  Company  : 

Gentlemen,  —  At  a  meeting  of  the  Grammar  Principals  of  this  city 

held  on  Monday  evening,  Nov.  24,  1890,  it  was  voted,  without  a  dis 

sen  ting  voice,  to  ask  the  Text- Book  Committee  to  introduce  Mont 

gomery's  United  States  History  in  place  of  the  text-book  then  in  use. 

Very  respectfully, 

J.  M.  Hall,  Prin.  Doyle  Avenue  School. 

II.  Unanimously  recommended  by  the  Text-Book  Committee. 

School  Document,  No.  8,  of  the  city  of  Providence,  giving  the  offi- 
cial report  of  the  meeting  of  Nov.  28,  1890,  says :  — 

The  Committee  on  Text- Books  submitted  the  following  report :  — 
To  the  School  Committee  of  the  City  of  Providence  : 

Your  committee,  to  whom  was  referred  the  resolution  regarding  a 
change  in  the  text-book  on  United  States  History,  and  directing  us  to 
report  which  is  best  adapted  for  use  in  our  grammar  schools,  respect- 
fully report  as  follows  :  — 

We  have  carefully  examined  into  the  matter.  .  .  . 

Among  the  several  books  above  referred  to,  your  committee  recom- 
mend as  best  adapted  to  the  work  we  desire  accomplished  in  our 
schools,  "The  Leading  Facts  of  American  History,"  by  Montgomery. 

Its  points  of  superiority  can  be  summed  up  as  follows :  — 

With  clearness  of  diction  and  accuracy  of  statement  it  combines 

good  judgment  in  the  selection  of  matter,  an  interesting  style,  a  logical 

connection  of  cause  and  effect,  and  a  close  adaptation  to  the  need  of 

the  pupil  and  teacher  in  the  class-room.  .  .  .   Respectfully  submitted. 

Hunter  C.  White,  Chairman,  for  the  Committee. 

III.  Unanimously  adopted  by  the  School  Board. 

School  Document  No.  8  continues  :  — 

The  report  was  received,  and  the  recommendations  contained  therein 
were  adopted  by  an  aye  and  nay  vote,  as  follows  :  — 
Ayes,  27  ;  nays,  none. 

Stich  an  example  speaks  for  itself. 
Introductory  price,  $1.00  ;  allowance  for  a  book  in  exchange,  30  cents. 

GINN  &  COMPANY,  Publishers, 

Boston,  New  York,  and  Chicago. 


BOOKS  IN  HIGHER  ENGLISH. 


Intro.  Price 
Alexander :         Introduction  to  the  Study  of  Browning        .        .        .  $1.00 

Allen :                  Reader's  Guide  to  English  History        ....  .25 

Arnold :               English  Literature 150 

Bancroft:            A  Method  of  English  Composition        .       ...  .50 

Browne :              Shakspere's  Versification .25 

Cook :  Sidney's  Defense  of  Poesy 

Shelley's  Defense  of  Poesy 

Fulton  &  Trueblood :  Choice  Readings 1.50 

Chart  Illustrating  Principles  of  Vocal  Expression      .  2.00 
Garnett :             English  Prose  from  Elizabeth  to  Victoria    . 

Genung :              Handbook  of  Rhetorical  Analysis 1.12 

Practical  Elements  of  Rhetoric 1.25 

Gilmore:  Outlines  of  the  Art  of  Expression 60 

Ginn :                   Scott's  Lady  of  the  Lake         .        .    Bds.,  .35 ;  Cloth,  .50 

Scott's  Tales  of  a  Grandfather       .    Bds.,  .40;  Cloth,  .50 

Selections  from  Ruskin  .        .        .    Bds.,  .30 ;  Cloth,  .40 

Goldsmith :         Vicar  of  Wakefield  ....    Bds.,  .30 ;  Cloth,  .50 

Grote  &  Segur :  The  Two  Great  Retreats  of  History,  Bds.,  .40 ;  Cloth,  .50 

Gummere :          Handbook  of  Poetics 1.00 

Hudson:  Harvard  Shakespeare:— 20  Vol. Edition.  Cloth, retail,  25.00 

"  "  10  Vol.  Edition.  Cloth,  retail,  20.00 

New  School  Shakespeare.    Each  Play,  Pa.  .30;  cloth,  .45 

Essays  on  Education,  English  Studies,  etc.          .        .  .25 

Text-Book  of  Poetry  and  of  Prose.    Each    .        .        .  1.25 

Pamphlet  Selections,  Prose  and  Poetry.    Each  .        .  .15 

Classical  English  Reader 1.00 

Johnson :             Rasselas Bds.,  .30 ;  Cloth,  .40 

Lamb :                 Adventures  of  1'lysses     .        .        .   Bds.,  .25 ;  Cloth,  .35 

Tales  from  Shakespeare  .        .        .    Bds.,  .40;  Cloth,  .50 

Lockwood :         Lessons  in  English 1.12 

Bryant's  Thanatopsis  and  Other  Favorite  Poems       .  .10 

Minto  :                 Characteristics  of  English  Poets 1.50 

Manual  of  English  Prose  Literature     ....  1.50 

Montgomery:     Bunyan's  Pilgrim's  Progress 

Heroic  Ballads          ....    Bds.,  .40;  Cloth,  .50 

Bolfe:  Craik's  English  of  Shakespeare 90 

Scott :  Guy  Manneriug,  Ivanhoe,  and  Rob  Roy. 

Each Bds.,  .GO;  Cloth,  .75 

Lay  of  the  Last  Minstrel.        .        .    Bds.,  .30;  Cloth,  .40 

Quentin  Durward     ....    Bds.,  .40;  Cloth,  .50 

Talisman Bds.,  .50;  Cloth,  .CO 

Sprague  :  Milton's  Paradise  Lost,  and  Lycidas 45 

Irving's  Sketch-Book  (Selections) .    Bds.,  .25;  Cloth,  .35 

Thayer:             The  Best  Elizabethan  Plays 125 

Thorn :                 Shakespeare  and  Chaucer  Examinations     .        .        .  1.00 

AMD    OTHER    VALUABLE    WORKS. 


GINN   &  COMPANY,   Publishers, 

Boston,  New  York,  and  Chicauo. 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 

Los  Angeles 

This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below. 


Form  f/t-Serips  4939 


AA    000  505  447 


I 


PLEAC£  DO   NOT    REMOVE 
THIS    BOOK  CARD 


^UIBR.\3Y0/c 


^/OJIWDJO^ 


University  Research  Library 


